A Start of a New Beginning Part 4
by Ro-Cel
Summary: Roman learns something new about herself and her magic, Celes struggles with the death of her brother. Blaise wants a second chance to prove himself good. Lee fights with the new attraction he has for Celes, and threatens the new relationship between Roman and Celes. (There are parts that come straight from the book. We tried to keep this as close to cannon)


Celes looked down at her watch again, Blaise was late. She looked around at the people eating at the small cafe. She was now 35 weeks and school would be starting soon. She had decided to give Blaise another shot when he called her. She finally saw him and waved standing slightly. She sat back in her chair as he joined her.

"You look good." he said.

"You're late." she remarked, she brushed a piece of hair out of her face. It was now fixed from her hack job weeks before and was shorter in the back and longer in the front she also had black streaks in it now. Reinvention is what this summer was becoming for her.

"Sorry, had to make a convincing excuse to my mum." he said giving one of his world class charming smiles. They didn't seem to work on Celes anymore but she smiled back anyways.

"So what prompted this visit?" she asked taking a bite of her fish fingers.

"Uh, well, honestly I wanted to make up what I did to you." he said the waitress came over and he ordered a coffee.

"Uh, Blaise, I don't think you could 'make it up to me' but you can help with this baby." she said. "I was a bit rash when I told you I didn't want your help, I was hurt." she said softly looking down. He reached across the table and took her hand and she felt like tearing it away from him, but didn't.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"You know, as good as one can when they lose a family member." she said taking her hand away from his and taking another bite of her fish finger and custard.

"So uh, what's the plan for the, uh, baby?" he asked.

"Well, I'm kind of doing an adoption thing." Celes said and saw some anger flash in his eyes.

"Adoption?" he asked sounding a little outraged.

"Uh, yeah, kind of. Alan, you know Roman's dad, he's going to take care of the baby while I finish school." she said and with every word she could see Blaise getting angrier.

"What made you think you could just decide all this without me?" he demanded and Celes sensed that this was about to go bad.

"Blaise, I made this decision without you because you had cheated on me and basically taken yourself out of the equation." Celes said harshly.

"You were the one who told me to stay away!" Blaise exclaimed.

"Only after you cheated on me!" Celes said standing.

"You can't make this choice without me and I'll make sure you can't. I'm going to get custody of that baby." he said standing as well. Celes threw a note down on the table and stalked away. Blaise followed her. "Did you hear me Diggory?" Celes whirled around.

"You can't do anything, you haven't got a sickle in your own money. All that money you'd use to pay for it, is your mum's; and I don't see her being too on board with a Blood traitor being the mother of your bastard child! I have money Blaise, I have lots of money and lots of power. So why don't you think before you threaten to try to take this baby away from me and my family." she said and Blaise just stared down at her in shock.

"You got mean." he said softly.

"Yeah, when your boyfriend whom you loved, cheats on you, gets you pregnant, and then your brother dies, you tend to get mean." she said poking him in the chest. "Not to mention Voldermort is back." she said quieter. Blaise looked defeated and somewhere in the back of her mind Celes felt bad but she wasn't about to show it.

"I have to get back." she said and turned to go.

"Wait can we finish this please?" Blaise asked.

"Yeah, I think we just did." Celes said and left him there in the middle of the street.

Roman had spent the first month and a half with her father's tribe. Which in turn, meant she had to spend time with her father. There were days that she was allowed to ride the horses on her own time but for the most time it was a lot of meditation in the sweat lodges. She didn't know why she had to do the meditation but for some odd reason it was like her father and the others were waiting for something to happen. And not just because Voldermort was back, but they were waiting for something to happen with her.

It was now the last day with her father and his tribe and Roman was upset. She basically spent the whole month and a half ignoring him and sitting on her ass in a sweat lodge. She wasn't taught anything! Matter of fact she was in the lodge now. She wiped some of the sweat from her forehead as she sat perfectly still. The entrance of the lodge opened and she saw her father enter. Her anger towards him had not lessened over the month either. She still hated that he made her do training when she needed to be with Celes. There were nights she woke crying and knew she was feeling Celes.

"Tomorrow you are to go to Hawaii." the told her.

She didn't say anything just stared at the steaming cols. An elder from the tribe entered and gave her a smile. She nodded and he sat next to her father.

"Today, we are going to speed up the process." her father told her.

Roman frowned and looked at her father.

"Usually, I would have made you stay all summer but you need to learn from your other side of the family. Therefore, we have ran out of time and we are going to have to force the process to speed up in a couple of hours."

"What exactly am I supposed to be doing?"

"We are unlocking your mind."

She gasped and stood up, "I don't want you in my mind."

"We are not going to browse through your memories. We are looking for one memory that has been locked away by your mother."

"What do you mean?"

"She wanted to protect you until you were older and it was time for you to remember. With Voldemort back its time that you remember."

Roman's frowned deepened as she sat back. "I don't understand."

The elder said something in his language and then he pulled out a bowl that was filled with tea and other herbs.

"Drink this and relax."

Roman eyed the bowl then drank from it. The smell of peyote filled the hut. She frowned as she started to feel detached from things. She lifted her hands and she saw a trail of her hand. "W-what…"

"Close your eyes."

She shook her head to clear it but she swayed in her seat. "What is… this?"

"Close your eyes and allow the herbs to open your mind."

Her eyelids grew heavy and she closed them. She heard laughter ring in her ears. It was laughter of a little girl and a man playing. Slowly her vision swam into view. A little girl with long dark hair was running around the house looking for a place to hide. She hid under a table as dark boots walked by and out the room. She poked her head from out of the table and looked around. She smiled and tipped toed out the room. From behind her she felt something but when she looked no one was there she turned around and saw her father in front of her. He roared at her and she screamed in laughter and ran. He laughed as he ran after her.

Roman smiled as tears fell from her eyes. It was her father and her playing. How did she forget that? She always played with her father. He had always made time to play with her.

"Alan, Ro needs to start her studies." Her mother called out.

They both groaned.

A woman with shoulder length hair walked into the room with her hands on her hips. "Don't you two groan at me. Now come along."

"But mama, can we just play a little longer?"

"Yeah, can't we play just a little longer." Alan asked.

Her mother laughed at both of their sad faces. She pinched both of their cheeks, "My twins, no. I already gave you two hours extra to play."

"Okay," they both said in unision.

Roman's mother took her by the hand and they walked into a dark room. She set her on a bed and kneeled down in front of her. "Remember, mama loves you."

Roman nodded, "I love you too."

"Remember none of it is real. If you feel like you are going to slip, tap your hand and you will wake up." Her mother kissed her on the cheek.

"Liluye," Alan said with concern he was leaning against the doorway, "I don't like this."

"We will be fine." She smiled up at him and then blew him a kiss. He sighed and closed the door.

Roman closed her eyes and she awoken in a dream world created by her mother. Another version of her was standing on a chair mixing the healing cream for her mother. She hopped of the chair that she was on, took the clear jar of the now pink cream.

"Mama, I have the healing cream." She called out as she climbed the stairs to her mother's room.

She opened the door and closed it with her foot. Her mother was sitting on the floor twisting her long hair into a braid. She took off her shirt and turned so that Roman could apply the cream to her back. Roman hissed as she looked at the dark patches on her mother's back.

"Roman," Her mother said quietly.

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"You have to remember this recipe and you have to remember to stay calm when you apply it."

"I am calm."

"No you aren't. I can feel you. You are angry and hurt that this has happened. You are giving out your emotions. Remember, there are some things you _have_ to be calm to do. And healing is one of them."

With an irritated sigh, Roman set the jar down and shook her hands and rolled her neck and shoulders to loosen up. After a while she felt calmness slowly fall over her. With another sigh she picked up the jar and slowly started to apply some of the cream onto her mother's back. Once skin to skin contact was made Roman was assaulted with images of her mother and her past. One of the memories of her mother she enjoyed was when her mom was doing the wedding dance for her father. They were so happy then. She latched onto that memory and fought to keep the other images out of her mind.

"Roman, what are you watching?" Liluye asked.

"Huh? Oh, you were dancing the wedding dance."

Her mother smiled as she thought about that, "That was one of the happiest days of my life." She whispered.

Roman hesitated as she continued to add the cream. Slowly the dark patches were disappearing. "Mama, why did you marry him? I mean you two always fight now."

"He was a different man then. He really does care about us; he is just… stressed out right now. When you are older you will understand."

"I don't like what he does to you. It's not right. None of the other kids parents fight as much as you guys do and I think the mark that is on Dad's arm is making him do it."

Liluye tensed for a little bit. "Did he tell you about his mark?"

"No, but I have always seen it; and I've seen it in your memories, and ever since he had gotten it he had changed."

"Your father is a complicated man. He really does love us."

"This is not love." Roman said coolly. "I know what love is, you have shown me many of times and he doesn't love us." Roman placed the lid of the jar back on and set the jar on her mother's nightstand. The bruises that were there were now gone. "I don't like him."

"Roman, he is your father." Liluye said a little tensed. She had known this was coming for years. She had seen it and she had tried to prevent it but it seemed not to have worked. "He really does love us, especially you."

"No he don't, he is a cold evil man that wants things to go his way."

"Roman, baby, he really…"

"For a man to lay hands on a woman like this is not love. It's no where near it."

Liluye raised her knees and turned to her daughter, "Roman, you have to promise me something thing."

"No, I will not. Every time I promise you something, it's too difficult. I refuse."

"Roman, you have to understand why he is doing this. He is trying to get you to open up to your full powers."

"No, I will not understand. I just want to go to school and live life as much as I could. I don't want anything to do with him!" she growled. The feeling of cold anger started to seep from her. "I don't want anything to do with him. He isn't my father and I refuse to acknowledge him as one."

Tears leaped into Liluye's eyes, "Roman, you have to understand you are special. You have a different power then we have ever seen. The powers from your father side mixed with my family are strong and unique at the same time."

"What are you talking about? You aren't a witch; you have never used any powers."

"I… I… Roman you have to understand…"

"She is a traitor." Said Alan's cold voice from behind them.

Roman turned around and glared at her father. "My mother isn't a traitor!" she growled.

Alan smiled coolly, "Is that so? Well Roman McTaggert," Her father spat with disgust. "You think you can protect her more than I can?"

"Alan, don't, this isn't the time."

"Shut up Liluye." He growled, "You insult me by changing your name, and then you call me a liar, your mother is a blood traitor!"

"You are the only traitor and you _are_ a liar! You are the father of lies!" Roman yelled at her father. "You are not welcome into this room, get out!" she pushed her father and tried to make him leave but he wouldn't budge.

Alan laughed and then slapped her across the face, "You are weak, and you will always be weak!"

"Alan, stop!"

"What is the matter, little girl? I thought you were going to make me leave?"

Roman glared at her father through tears as her anger mounted and when it reached a peak she blacked out. A loud hissing rose from Roman a large dark hooded figure seeped out of the small version of Roman.

"Control it, Ro." her mother told her. Control it! You can control him. Use your mind and emotions."

The older version of Roman gasped and pressed herself to the wall. When she looked around she noticed the whole dream stopped. Liluye was holding the small Roman and telling her to control the hooded figure. Then everything stop and her mother looked up right at her.

Roman looked behind her but no one was there. She turned towards her mother as she placed the smaller version of her gently on the ground.

"You have grown so big." her mother whispered as she walked towards her. She gave a little laugh as tears ran down her cheek. "My Ro, you look so much like your father."

"You can see me?" Roman asked.

"Oh, yes. I can see you like this is all real."

Roman frowned, "What is going on?"

"You have come to say goodbye." her mother told her.

"I don't understand."

Liluye took in a deep breath, "There is much to say but tell me this, am I alive?"

Roman shook her head no.

"Then you have come to say goodbye. You must not be angry with your father. This was all my doing."

"What do you mean?"

"This I have the power to place people into a trance and work in their minds. I can also pick up on their emotions. Your father can read people by a single touch."

"What are you doing here? I don't understand, what is that?" she pointed at the dark hooded figure.

"That is a soul eater. In our magic soul eaters are created in two ways. One, someone has abandoned all their emotions and decided to kill. Two, the death of someone very close can drive a person to leave all their morals and values. Soul Eaters are unpredictable. They do not have loyalties to anyone but themselves and they don't only feed on souls but negative emotions."

"Why is that coming out of me?"

"You were a special case. You were born with a Soul Eater already implanted inside you. We do not know why nor do we know how. I have been training you since you were in diapers to control it. There were nights when you would have terrible nightmares and it would come out. So since then I have been training you."

"But… this is a real memory. I was here?"

Liluye shook her head. "This is a trance I put you in. I would enter your mind and we would train to control your soul eater." she hugged Roman, "I fear this is the last I will see you. Please don't feel guilty for what will happen or already has happened and please protect your father."

"But…" Right then everything seemed to spiral out of control. The smaller version of her screamed. The soul eater hissed and grabbed her mother by the throat. the vision Liluye had created melted away. The dark room suddenly lit up and Alan ran into the room. He gasped as he used a spell to remove the soul eater from his wife.

"No!" Liluye screamed. "We are connected!"

"Liluye," Alan cried out.

Roman screamed again and the soul eater started to inhale.

"Roman stop!" Alan shook his daughter. "Calm down, Roman!"

"Alan!" Liluye cried out.

Alan tried pushing the soul eater away but it only pushed him back. When he saw the white glowing bead of his wife's soul he grabbed the nearest thing and hit Roman over the head with it, knocking her out. When he turned to his wife it was too late. The soul eater had taken her soul.

The older version of Roman cried as she covered her mouth. She didn't want to see anymore. She wanted the whole nightmare to end. She came awake screaming and kicking.

"Roman, calm yourself." Alan told her as he held her down.

"Let go of me!" She screamed. She pushed him out the way and ran out the sweat lodge. She ran as fast as her legs could take her then she collapsed on the ground and puked. She sobbed as she held herself. It wasn't her father but her that killed her mother. All these years she had blamed him and hated him when in truth she was to blame.

A hand touched her back and all of Alan's memories flooded her. She sobbed harder as she tried to pull away. He held her tight in his arms and soothed her.

"It's okay. It's okay. I got you. Everything is okay." He rocked her and smoothed her hair until she cried herself to sleep.

The next day Roman woke in her father's arms. Her head ached and her stomach growled angrily at her.

Alan moved some of her hair from her face. "It wasn't your fault.

"Why did you keep this away from me?"

"When she started training you she made me do an unbreakable vow. She told me if anything was to happen while she was training you that I would not tell you until you were of age or unless Voldemort came back. We knew he was dead but your mother kept having premonitions of his return."

"So he is back and now you were able to tell me."

Alan held her tight. "You are all that I have. And I know you want to go back to Hogwarts but I don't want you to go."

Roman turned to him. "I have to go back. Celes is there."

Be brushed more of her hair out of her face. "You have grown up and I wasn't able to see it all. And I hate myself for it."

Roman shook her head. "Don't."

"I have to go back to London today. I am in the Order of the Phoenix and I promise to take good care of Celes. But you have to promise me to come back to me after you finish school."

"I will try."

Celes had been pretty much Flat bound since she had had lunch with Blaise. She rolled over in her bed when she heard the front door open. She got up and walked out into the living room. She smiled when she saw that it was Alan.

"Awe Celes, good to see you." he said, he seemed happier.

"And you too." she said resting her hands on her belly.

"You seem to be doing fine." he said setting down his bag.

"Yeah, Poppy was here yesterday giving me my check up." Celes said bouncing on her toes.

"Well it's good that you are doing well, you'll need to pack though because you and I are going to headquarters today. Your Aunt called me and requested this." Alan said sitting down.

"But I thought I'd just stay here until I had to go back to Hogwarts." Celes said joining him.

"Celes you need to be with your family you're at the end of the pregnancy and the hard part is coming up. So I think it will be good to be with them." Alan said and Celes nodded looking down at her hands, then she looked hopefully at Alan.

"Will Roman be there?" she asked.

"No, but she will be on the train when you go back to school." Alan said and Celes nodded sadly. She got up, "I guess I'll get dressed and get my things together."

About an hour later she stood with Alan at the door waiting for her house elf to gather the things and put them in the car downstairs.

They got into the car and drove for about thirty minutes, when they got there and the house revealed itself when they got out. Celes watched in awe as it happen. Her uncle came out the front door and she smiled at him. He stopped and nodded to Alan and hugged Celes.

"Hey Uncle Sev" she said feeling a little relief.

"I'm not staying Celes I have other business." he said and Celes looked up at him he stroked her hair. "Why'd you cut your hair?"

"Its easier to manage this way." Celes said pulling away. "Go to your business I'll see you at school I guess." she said making her way to the front door. She opened it followed by Alan. She stepped into the dark corridor and for some reason felt the need to be quiet she walked forward slowly and found her way to where the voices were coming from and pushed open a door to find a kitchen. Everyone looked up and Molly smiled and came over and gave her a big hug.

"Welcome home dear." she said and Celes felt a prickle behind her eyes as she hugged Molly back. She looked at the table and saw her cousins, Hermione, and Harry. She pulled away from Molly while Alan said his goodbyes. He left and Celes went over to the table and sat down next to Harry. He gave her a smile and grabbed her hand.

"I have a hearing, I got pegged for magic use outside of school." he said.

"What? Why?" Celes asked.

"Dementors attacked Dudley and I. I defended myself." he said shrugging.

"Dementors? Really?" Celes asked in awe. "They must be on his side."

"That's what I think too." Harry said softly.

"Celes dear are you hungry?" Molly asked.

"I'm always hungry Aunt Molly." Celes said and everyone laughed. Celes didnt laugh with them it wasn't that funny.

"You alright?" Harry asked. Celes nodded as Molly set a plate of food. Celes took a big bite of the Hash and eggs.

For the next couple week or so Celes hung around while everyone went about their business. Celes did not interact with them too much only when she had to and before she knew it she was in a car from the Ministry being driven to Kings Cross and then she was getting on the train. She was anticipating seeing Roman. She found a compartment towards the back of the train. She set her bag down and sat down slowly. She was five days away from her due date and while it was her birthday she didn't feel like celebrating. She waited and the train started to move and still no Roman. Where was she, and then she felt Roman's presence and sighed in relief. The compartment door slid open and Celes saw Roman and tears filled her eyes and she stood up and hugged Roman.

"I'm so glad you're here." she said.

Roman hugged her back rocking her. "How are you doing?" She asked pulling back and looking at Celes.

"I...I'm fine." she said pulling away and sitting down. "Had a row with Blaise about the baby a few weeks ago. Otherwise nothing has been going on with me." she said leaning back.

"Celes, your brother died less than three months ago." Roman pointed out.

"I know that Ro, I'm dealing with that." she said resting her hands on her large belly.

"Ready for the baby to be here?" Roman asked looking at her belly.

"Yeah, I think I am." Celes said and laughed a little. "As ready as one can be I guess."

"So, Happy Birthday." Roman said softly turning away to get something out of her bag. She handed her a small box. Celes smiled and took it and opened it. She pulled out a small bracelet made of carved flower beads made out of wood.

"Its Koa wood, I got it for you while I was in Hawaii." she said taking it and putting it on her wrist.

"Thanks Ro, its beautiful." she said softly looking at it.

"I'm glad you like it." Roman said her hand hovering on Celes' wrist.

"Ro, about the train ride, I was grieving and if you dont want to you know move in that direction...we don't have to." Celes said and Roman smiled at her.

"How about we take it slow then?" she asked. "You're still pregnant and still mourning."

"Okay, slow is good." Celes said softly taking Roman's wrist with her hand and rubbed the inside of it.

Roman blinked and sat back. "So ready for another year of school?" she asked.

"No, but I don't have much of a choice." Celes said shrugging.

"Do you know if we'll get the apartment back?" Roman asked softly.

"I dont know, I hope so. Merlin knows I could use a haven." Celes said leaning back next to Roman, their arms still linked.

"Yes well I guess we'll find out when we get there." Roman said.

"So you look good, is it me or do you feel happier." Celes asked.

"You always make me feel happier. Wait you mean your perception." Roman teased. She sighed, "I'm...getting there with me personally."

"And your dad?" Celes asked softly.

"My dad, well that's a big question and I'm still trying to figure all that out." she said in response. "So, you seen Potter yet?"

"Uh, yeah, he almost got expelled." Celes said.

"Did he really? Wow! What happened?" Roman asked and Celes relayed the story to her.

"Thats insane, Dementors in Little Whinging." She said shuddering.

"Thats what I'm saying." Celes said. The trolley came by and Celes eagerly bit into a cauldron cake and grinned in relief.

"You really do want to eat all the time, huh?" Roman asked.

"Yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to not being hungry all the time." Celes said

"I'm sure you are." Roman said as she watched Celes devour the cake and then move to the next one.

"I'm looking forward to the feast. Make sure you eat some though, okay?" Celes said pushing one of the cakes towards her. Roman just smiled and picked up the cake.

They talked the whole time and Celes took a nap for a little bit and found herself being shaken awake she sat up groggily.

"We're almost there." Roman said. "You might want to change."

"Oh good plan." Celes said and got up turning and changing into an altered school uniform and sat back down as the train slowed down at the Hogsmeade station. Celes stood up along with Roman and grabbed her bag. The two girls shuffled off the train and got into one of the carriages and rode to the school and got out and pulled aside by Severus.

"You two will be staying in your apartment again this year." he said and they both nodded filing into the Great Hall for dinner. Alot of students turned and looked at her, more like stared and Celes just jutted her chin out and sat down at Gryffindor table.

She waited for dinner to start and looked around at Slytherin table Blaise was glaring at her and so was Draco for that matter. Celes sighed and looked over at Hufflepuff table and her heart tugged at her. She pushed the feeling away and turned back to her plate.

"So anyone else notice that Hagrid is missing?" Roman asked looking around at the people they were sitting with at the table.

"He is, I wonder if he's alright." Hermione said and Harry looked around worried.

Then the sorting started and the hat was placed out on the stool and this year it had a new song to sing.

 _In times of old when I was new_

 _And Hogwarts barely started_

 _The founders of our noble school_

 _Thought never to be parted:_

 _United by a common goal,_

 _They had the selfsame yearning,_

 _To make the world's best magic school_

 _And pass along their learning._

 _"Together we will build and teach!"_

 _The four good friends decided_

 _And never did they dream that they_

 _Might someday be divided,_

 _For were there such friends anywhere_

 _As Slytherin and Gryffindor?_

 _Unless it was the second pair_

 _Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?_

 _So how could it have gone so wrong?_

 _How could such friendships fail?_

 _Why, I was there and so can tell_

 _The whole sad, sorry tale._

 _Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those_

 _Whose ancestry is purest."_

 _Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose_

 _Intelligence is surest."_

 _Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those_

 _With brave deeds to their name,"_

 _Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot,_

 _And treat them just the same."_

 _These differences caused little strife_

 _When first they came to light,_

 _For each of the four founders had_

 _A House in which they might_

 _Take only those they wanted, so,_

 _For instance, Slytherin_

 _Took only pure-blood wizards_

 _Of great cunning, just like him,_

 _And those of sharpest mind_

 _Were taught by Ravenclaw_

 _While the bravest and the boldest_

 _Went to daring Gryffindor._

 _Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,_

 _And taught them all she knew,_

 _Thus the Houses and their founders_

 _Retained friendships firm and true._

 _So Hogwarts worked in harmony_

 _For several happy years,_

 _But then discord crept among us_

 _Feeding on our faults and fears._

 _The Houses that, like pillars four,_

 _Had once held up our school,_

 _Now turned upon each other and,_

 _Divided, sought to rule._

 _And for a while it seemed the school_

 _Must meet an early end,_

 _What with dueling and with fighting_

 _And the clash of friend on friend_

 _And at last there came a morning_

 _When old Slytherin departed_

 _And though the fighting then died out_

 _He left us quite downhearted._

 _And never since the founders four_

 _Were whittled down to three_

 _Have the Houses been united_

 _As they once were meant to be._

 _And now the Sorting Hat is here_

 _And you all know the score:_

 _I sort you into Houses_

 _Because that is what I'm for,_

 _But this year I'll go further,_

 _Listen closely to my song:_

 _Though condemned I am to split you_

 _Still I worry that it's wrong,_

 _Though I must fulfill my duty_

 _And must quarter every year_

 _Still I wonder whether sorting_

 _May not bring the end I fear._

 _Oh, know the perils, read the signs,_

 _The warning history shows,_

 _For our Hogwarts is in danger_

 _From external, deadly foes_

 _And we must unite inside her_

 _Or we'll crumble from within_

 _I have told you, I have warned you..._

 _Let the Sorting now begin._

After the song finished everyone looked around a little shocked by the warning. The sorting began and kids were sorted into houses and then Dumbledore stood up to say a few things. And was quickly interrupted by the woman in pink. She went on to explain her reason for being there and all Celes and several others around her got out of it was that the Ministry was looking to control Hogwarts. Voldemort was back and from what Celes just heard the ministry wasn't going to do anything about it.

Celes got up and left before dinner was even served she was so disgusted with everyone at that moment she had to get away. She walked to her apartment she shared with Roman. She didn't make it half way there before Roman caught up with her and took her hand.

"They don't even care that he's back." she said once they were inside their apartment. "He's back, I have the proof right here on my damn arm. And they send some mad little woman to try to what, cover it up?" she demanded and Roman just shook her head.

"I don't know Cel-bear. You need to calm down, okay? You're going to go into labor if you get too stressed." Roman said taking her hand and leading her to sit. She did so but she didn't want to be.

"I'm sorry, its just stressful and frustrating. He killed my brother last year and they're not doing jack shit to find him." Celes said sitting back and leaning her head back.

"I know Celes, they'll get their heads out of their butts soon." Roman said tucking a strand of Celes' hair behind her ear.

"Yeah somehow I don't think you believe that." Celes said with a dry laugh looking at her.

"You know, I kind of don't." she said smiling back. They looked at each other for a few minutes Roman's hand still in Celes' hair and Celes leaned forward and kissed Roman. Celes felt a spark of something inside her and deepened the kiss and then she was grabbing Roman's head and kissing her more fiercely and then a sharp pain shot through her abdomen and she pulled away breathing hard.

"What, what's wrong? Too fast?" Roman asked softly.

"No, Ro...I think I'm going into labor." she said and no sooner were the words out her water broke all over the couch.

"Oh...Oh!" Roman said helping Celes to stand. Celes smiled and allowed Roman to help her to the Hospital wing.

Celes laid in bed having labor pains for what seemed like forever and then it was time to push. It was well after midnight and she was tired and so was Roman and Poppy.

"Alright Celes, when you feel a contraction you need to push with all your might." Poppy said, Celes did as she was told baring down pulling on her legs and pushing. When the contraction ended she fell back and waited for the next one to come and when it did she shot forward and pushed. She didn't hear anyone or anything, and when she fell back again Poppy said the baby was crowning she smiled over at Roman who wiped her forehead off before Celes shot forward again and gave one last push and suddenly it felt like a pressure was being released from her abdomen and the room filled with a baby crying. Celes fell back crying, Poppy put the baby on her belly and she looked down at him.

"A boy Celes, it's a boy." Roman said brushing back her hair and kissing her forehead. "He is beautiful."

"A boy." Celes sighed and they took the baby away to clean him. They finished with her and then brought the baby over to her to hold.

"Have you got a name?" Roman asked touching the babies little cheek.

"Alaric Tobius…" she paused. "Diggory." she finished looking down at the baby boy. He had light brown skin and full head of black hair, when his eyes opened they were still newborn blue.

"He's perfect Celes, I'll go contact my father." Roman said and Celes nodded watching Roman go.

The Next morning Celes and Roman woke with the sound of the baby sucking and a low male voice speaking.

Roman watched her father smile and rock the baby. He seemed so at ease with holding him and so happy. A pang of guilt and hurt spread through her. Celes stirred as she held Roman's hand.

"What is his name?" Alan asked.

"Alaric Tobius Diggory." Celes told him.

Alan smiled, "Do you mind if I call him Lark?"

Roman gave a chuckle, "If you call him Lark I'm calling him Lark the Shark."

Celes gave a smile, "You would."

"Of course I would. Have you seen the way he moved inside you? I swear it was like you had a small little shark in you."

Alan chuckled and shook his head. "At least that never changed."

Roman frowned, "What never changed?"

"You always preferred to call people by animal names."

Her frown deepened, "No I don't."

Celes snorted, "Oh really? What about me? You call me Cel Bear."

"But it's cute. It reminds me of the funny looking bears I saw called Care Bears. And it fit you. Oh, whatever, I like what I like and I'm calling him Lark the Shark."

The hospital doors opened and there were sounds of feet rushing towards them. Blaise was the first to appear followed by Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Lee.

"Where is the baby?"

Roman glared at him, "Alaric is with his adoptive father."

"A boy? Wait what did you name him? Why didn't you discuss this with me?" he asked Celes.

Alan frowned as he looked at the boy. He carefully sat down with the child in his arms. Harry, Ron, Fred, George all went to him and looked at the baby. Lee frowned as he kept his distance but he looked over the boys and watched the baby.

"Yes Blaise, I named the baby without discussing it with you. Its like I said in London you lost your chance to say anything at all especially after you threatened to try to take him away from me and his family." she said waving to Alan and the boys standing around them.

Roman snorted, "Like he had a chance at trying to gain custody of him." she muttered under her breath.

Blaise shot her a dark look and Celes rolled her eyes. "Just go Blaise, you can't feign responsibility now, okay." Celes sighed and Lee stood up in front of him.

Roman stood up next to him, "You heard her. Leave. Until you find a way to get on her good side I suggest you leave her alone." she told him.

Fred, George, and Harry also stood up and crossed their arms over their chests and glared at him.

"See Blaise, I told you it wouldn't be easy." Celes sighed and Blaise backed down and left without another word

"Git." Fred and George said in unison.

Roman shook her head as she layed back down with Celes. She took her hand and held as she looked over to her father.

"Did you really name him Alaric?" Fred asked Celes. "That seems like a mouthful."

"Yes she did. Alaric Tobias Diggory. So I'm going to call him Lark the Shark and my father is going to call him Lark."

Fred and George laughed. Harry gave a little smile along with Lee.

Roman frowned at her father as she bit her lower lip, she wanted to ask when he was going to take the baby but she didn't want to be insensitive about it. So she looked at Harry and Ron. "How was the first day of class?"

Harry grew a dark frown along with Ron. "Don't ask." Ron told them.

"We will tell you two later," Harry said. "I don't want to upset the baby."

Roman nodded, "We are going to be studying for a O. this year, aren't we? Well the good news is we can drop and elective."

"I wouldn't mind dropping Divination." Ron grumbled.

"Me either. Every year Professor Trelawney keeps predicting my…" Harry trailed off then cleared his throat. "Never mind."

Right then Roman's stomach growled at her. She frowned and looked at her stomach. "No one was talking to you." she told it. It growled at her again. She sighed and looked over at Celes who was smiling at her.

"Do you always talk to your stomach?" she teased.

"Only when its interrupting something."

Fred and George laughed, "You should have seen second year when we were studying h… er… when we were watching her do her class work." George said giving Alan a sideways glance. Not sure if he trusted him. "Every few hours it would growl."

"It would not."

"Yes it did, Ro." Fred told her. "We had to keep a full stock of some kind of food."

Roman rolled her eyes and looked at Celes, "I better go before they start telling all my secrets. Are you hungry? I'll bring you something back…. as long it's not fish fingers and custard."

Celes snorted at Roman. "No actually for the first time in weeks I could go for something that is not that." she said taking Roman's hand.

Roman smiled and kissed her fingers then got up, "Roast beef, red potatoes, cake, juice…" she said making a list of food as she walked out the hospital wing followed by Fred, George, Lee, Ron, and Harry.

A week and a half had went by in the most horrid of ways. Roman had started class on the second day and she was livid to learn what had happen on the first day. Not only did Dolores Umbridge gave a half ass excuse of why they wouldn't be practicing spells to help defend against the dark arts but she had said Cedric Diggoy's death was an unfortunate accident. She was so glad that Celes and herself were not in class that day. Harry Potter wouldn't have been the only one with detention. Then on Sunday the Ministry of Magic passed an Educational Decree appointing Umbridge High Inquisitor. Which means she was now going to go to each class and evaluate their teaching. Those that she felt were doing well pass and those that she felt that did poorly were being dismissed. By Tuesday of the second week of classes Roman had started calling professor Umbridge, Psycho Pink Lady, or PPL for short and she had detention.

Roman grumbled to herself as she walked into the Great Hall for lunch. She sat down with a huff and glared at the table. Alan had taken Alaric home to his flat the day before and Celes was being released that night.

"Psycho Pink Lady. Any woman that wears that much pink is crazy. And not just crazy but psychotic crazy."

"What did she do now?" Fred asked.

"She was in Transfiguration trying to intimidate Professor McGonagall."

"I wish I was there to see that." George said.

"I will admit that was awesome to see. I've seen Professor McGonagall upset but I have never seen her pissed off and she was pissed! I don't blame her. PPL kept trying to interrupt every chance she got. It was so stupid. But Professor tore her a new one. That was the highlight of my day. Just to see Psycho Pink Lady turn red."

Fred and George chuckled. Lee walked over to them and sat down next to her. Roman frowned at him. "Have you gotten detention from PPL, yet?" she asked him.

He looked a little surprised at her. Roman had not said one word to him since Christmas and neither had he but now that Scott was graduated he had resumed eating at the Gryffindor table. He had promised Scott he would be on his best behavior when it came to Roman. For most of his summer he had been at Scott's new flat going over what he should say, when he should say it, how he should say it, and to keep his lust to a low level along with his anger.

Lee shook his head, "No, I've been trying to stay off her radar." he told her.

Roman rolled her eyes, "That heffer gave me detention tonight and she knows damn well I need to help Celes back to our apartment. Ugh! I swear if I didn't need this class I would ditch it all year."

"Did you ditch last year?" George asked.

"No, Snape was teaching me all last year."

Fred gasped and looked at her, "And you are still alive?"

She frowned at him, "Of course I am. It was Moody that was the traitor."

George pulled out a journal, "He was using the Polyjuice potion, how did that affect your ability?"

"Really George? We are going to do this?" Roman asked.

"Come on Ro, tell us?"

She sighed and closed her eyes. "I was getting mixed signals. I got a lot of the real Moody's memories but I also got weird memories from the fake one." She shrugged, "It was just weird."

George quickly made notes in the journals.

"I can take care of Celes." Lee told her.

Roman gasped and looked at Lee, "What?"

"I can take care of Celes while you go to detention."

She glared at him. She didn't like the sound of that. She wanted to be the one to take care of her. Sure it was Lee she was talking to and she could trust him but at the same time she wanted to be the first to take care of her. She bit her lip and looked down at her plate. She couldn't skip detention or she would get more and Celes did need someone to help her.

"Okay, fine, but if you do something to her, so help me God,I will hunt you down."

Lee raised an eyebrow, "A little overprotective, are we?"

She snorted, "You don't know the half of it." She collected food, grabbed her bag and walked off.

"What did you do to her?" Fred asked.

"I didn't do anything, I just offered to help Celes." Lee told him.

"You know, I have noticed she had been becoming closer to Celes… I mean a lot closer." George told them. Then he wrote some more into the journal.

"I've noticed that too." Lee said as he watched her walk out the Great Hall. "Fred, are you and her still dating?"

"No, we… seemed to have grown apart… Celes chewed the bloody hell out of me about it."

George chuckled, "She not only chewed the bloody hell out of you but she also spat you back out."

Fred grumbled and dug into his lunch.

Roman made her way to the hospital wing and sat in a chair. Every day she had visited Celes and gave her a report of what was happening. Celes was livid when she heard about what Umbridge had said about Cedric's death. It took Roman a while to calm her down but in the end they both agreed to terrorize the hell out of her. Besides the news of what Umbridge had been doing she would also collect her homework and give it to her. When Celes was done with the assignments she would turn them in for her.

Celes smiled at her as she walked in and sat in a chair. Then she frowned, "What happened?"

"I got…" she mumbled the last.

"What?"

"I got…" she mumbled again.

Celes raised an eyebrow, "You got detention, didn't you?"

"Yes, tonight." Roman told her as she put her head down in shame.

"Who did you get detention from?"

"Psycho Pink Lady," She grumbled. "But it wasn't my fault, the crazy heifer was being unreasonable about class. I mean really? the books she gave us are basically little kid stuff. Needless to say that I and Hermione are the only ones that read the whole book." Roman placed the food she brought on a tray and set it in front of her. "Lee said he would come and help you get to our apartment tonight."

"Are you okay with that?"

Roman nodded, "I know he will take good care of you. Besides I told him if he didn't I would hunt him down."

Celes laughed, "Really Ro?"

"What, I just… I wanted to be the one to help you. You know how I am. I can be a perfectionist sometimes and this time I had it planned out. I was going to run a bath for you. Come and get you, then make you take a bath." she gave Celes a teasing smile, "And maybe have me in it."

Celes smiled, "So what really upset you was the fact that you wouldn't be here tonight to take a bath with me."

Roman frowned, "Maybe,"

Celes pulled Roman down by her bread and kissed her. "I am upset too." she whispered. She kissed her again and then pushed her back. "Well, you better hurry up and finish your detention."

"Yes ma'am." Roman smiled. "Here, you need to eat."

That night Roman made her way to Umbridge's office grumbling to herself the whole way there. When she got there she was kind of surprise to see that the whole office was in pink.

"Miss McTaggert, it is so kind of you to join me. Please, sit down."

"Oh, God." Roman said as she looked around the room and saw pictures of cats meowing.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

Roman shook her head, "No," She sat down and looked at the blank paper. "What am I going to be doing for you tonight?"

"You will be doing lines, for me tonight."

"Okay… What should these lines say?"

"You will write, 'I will not speak out of turn.'"

Roman glared at the back of her head. "How many times?"

"Until it sinks in." she gave a little giggle.

"May I have some ink?"

"You will not need ink."

Roman picked up the quill and and wrote, 'I will not speak out of turn.' When she was done with the first line she hissed in pain. A strange itching but yet burning sensation was starting to form on her hand. Then the words 'I will not speak out of turn.' appeared on her hand.

"What in the hell is this?" she said as she stood up.

"It is your punishment."

"The hell it is! This is child abuse. I understand if you want to punish me by doing lines but by having it carved into my skin? No, I refuse to do lines."

"You will sit down and write the lines!" she yelled.

Roman smiled at her, "Very well, but you will also feel every pain I receive."

"What is that supposed to mean?" she snapped.

"Exactly what I said." Roman sat down and started to write. The more pain she received the more Umbridge received.

"What is this magic?" she asked as she stopped Roman and took the quill away from her. "What are you doing!" she yelled.

Right then there was a knock on the door and Professor snape walked in.

"What!" she yelled then she cleared her throat. "What can I help you with, Professor Snape?" she asked in her fake sweet voice.

"I have come to collect, Miss McTaggert."

"She cannot go. She is doing lines for me as part of her detention."

"I understand that, but you have to understand, Miss McTaggert is not from our magic so therefore she does not fall under our jurisdiction of the Ministry of Magic."

"Professor Snape, it is quite alright, I don't mind doing Professor Umbridge's detention."

Snape glared at her.

"Fine take her away." Umbridge hissed.

Roman frowned as she stood up. As she passed Umbridge on the way out she gently touched her hand and took away the memory of what had just happened and implanted new ones. "Have a good night, Professor."

She nodded and closed the door on them.

When Roman and Snape got to the bottom of the stairs he whirled around on her, "Do you have any idea what could have happen?"

"You mean the whole words scratched into my skin? Yeah, you are a little too late for that."

"No, I mean the fact that you are a…"

"Walking death trap ready to suck someone's soul out? Yes, I know, and I don't need to be reminded, thank you very much." she pushed passed him, "And for the record, I am no longer seven years old. I know how to control my own emotions as far is that is concerned. Now if you'll excuse me I have homework to do." She took a deep breath then paused, "Professor, thank you for interfering, but I'm a big girl now. I know what I am and I know what I have to do to keep everyone safe." she walked away.

Celes looked up and smiled when Lee came into the Hospital wing. He smiled back, Celes was dressed and ready to go. She was moving at a pretty normal pace now and didn't quite understand why Roman was being so...overprotective of her other than their new level of relationship. Lee came over and grabbed her bag full of things she was given while in the hospital and the homework she had yet to finish. Basically her ridiculous Defence against the dark arts work. Her eyes clouded as she thought of the PPL as Roman called her and Lee touched her hand snapping her out of it.

"Alright Celes?" he asked and she smiled.

"Yes Lee, I'm fine." she said and led him to her they got inside she sat down on the couch in the sitting room. "You can drop my stuff there in my room."

After he did he came back out and sat down on the couch with her, he looked around. "This place is great." he said.

"Yeah, best thing I think to happen to Roman and I." Celes said, she brushed her hair out of her face. Lee turned to her with a quizzical look on his face.

"Celes, what's going on with you two?" he asked and Celes couldn't help but blush.

"I dont know if I should tell you Lee." she said softly.

"I can feel her on you." Lee whispered and with no warning he grabbed her hand and Celes felt pure lust come from him. She looked at him in shock, even though she had alway been attracted to him she had never acted on it because she knew, even before they did, that they were in love with one another.

"Lee, what's going on?" she asked softly. He appeared to be having an internal battle with himself.

"Celes, things with Roman...she did something truly horrible to me. And I've been working to get past that." he said, he was stroking her wrist.

"I know you have and that's good. I understand you were pretty mad at her" Celes said, she didn't pull away from Lee's touch like she should for some reason a dark part of her wanted him to be touching her. What was going on?

"I'm with this new guy, and he's great. I'm seeing things clearly and part of me can understand why she even did it. I mean she's a scientist; she was perfecting something and who better to test it on then someone she knew she already had a connection to?" he said and his marks appeared and Celes began to trace them lightly.

"Her experiment worked too well, you remember the ball...that's when my eyes were opened to the possibility of she and I." Celes said her voice no more than a whisper. Her heart rate had picked up.

"Yes, I remember you two danced and she kissed you." Lee said and then leaned forward and lightly kissed Celes.

Celes didn't know what to do so she just sat there and allowed him to. It felt nice, Lee's lips on her's, it felt nice but all she could think about was Roman and finally pulled away. "Lee whatever this is, it can't happen." she pulled her hands from his. "I love Roman and I wont hurt her. And if you plan on using me to hurt her for what she did...you can think again."

"No...I don't know what it is, I'm just drawn to you is all I guess." Lee said moving to the other side of the couch.

"Uh, I'm going to go take a bath." Celes said getting up.

"Do you need help?" Lee asked and when she gave him a look he shook his head. "Not what I meant Cel."

"Right, uh, no. Feel free to stick around till Roman gets here cause you know you said you would; but I've got that whole bath thing." she said and rushed into the bathroom. When she shut the door she leaned against it breathing hard. Something odd was happening to Celes.

She was acting on things she would have never acted on before this year. She was in an odd place in her life. But instead of thinking on it further she chose some taps and turned on some bubbles and water, striped down and looked down at where her pregnant belly used to be. In a week she had almost gone back to her old size although she could tell her hips sat wider apart now. Clear sign of a woman who had had a child.

She waded into the tub, she didn't have to worry about bleeding anymore she had stopped the day before. She picked up a soap bar and began lathering her skin up. It felt good to get to soak for a change instead of taking a quick shower. She went under and sighed as the hot water enveloped her. She loved the way it felt on her body. She came back up and went to the bench on the side of the tub. She sat there with her head back on the bathroom floor and shut her eyes. She missed her little Lark a lot but she knew it was best that he be with Alan for now. She thought of all the things that had happened to her. Mourning her brother even still. She hated that he was dead she couldn't just go talk to him.

Celes began to think about Roman again and her body warmed, she was truly astonished at how in such a short time she had found it easy to want more with her. She never denied being attracted to Roman, not since third year when the first sparks were there after that kiss in front of the school; but she had never thought to act upon it until last year. And when they were together Celes didn't want to keep her hands off of Roman. She thought about Blaise briefly and remembered all the good, but the one bad thing instantly made her thing dark things about him. She wanted him to suffer, she wanted him to pay for her pain. And not just that he had caused her in her mind he was just the spark to all the pain she had been feeling since Cedric had died. She hated him, someone had told her once that you have to truly love someone before you could hate them, but that was rubbish thinking on it now she wasn't sure she ever loved him at all.

And then there was Harry, she loved him but she wasn't sure she could ever go there. He was Harry Potter and he was so beyond her while he expressed as much of wanting to be with her it had just never worked out. And now she was bound to Roman, she wanted to be bound to Roman. She loved Roman and knew that it could work.

Celes didn't hear the door of the bathroom open and didn't open her eyes until someone got into the tub with her. She opened her eyes and smiled when she saw it was Roman. For a fleeting minute before she did she thought it was Lee.

"Lee says you've been in here for a while, he was worried." Roman said wading towards her.

"Yeah, um, I just needed to relax is all." Celes said taking Roman's hand when she got close enough and tugging on her slightly so she could kiss her. She did so slowly and sensually but then pulled away remembering the words of Poppy. "I can't...be sexually active in any form for another five weeks Ro."

Roman's face fell, "Really?" she pouted and Celes reached out and bit her lip. Roman's eyes set fire with desire.

"Yes…" she said softly as Roman's hand trailed down to cup one of her breasts.

"Not even a little bit?" she asked.

Celes dropped her head back and closed her eyes. "No, Ro. Baby, week ago, my body needs time to recover from the trauma." she said in a hoarse whisper.

"Well, damn." she sighed her other hand taking Celes' other breast. Celes moaned a little and reached out to touch Roman's breasts. She did so and pressed against her and kissed her again, her knee going between Celes' legs.

Before it could go any further though Celes pulled away and painfully said. "We can't, really give me a little more time to recover okay?"

Roman pouted again but nodded.

Celes got out of the tub turning slowly to give Roman a nice little show and then she pulled on her robe and went into her room. She dressed into a pair of gryffindor pj pants and a white tank top. She went back out into the sitting room and started in on the rest of her homework.

Roman joined her wearing a very similar set of pjs and sat on the floor next to her leg as she started to brush her hair. "So, how was Lee. Was he nice to you?" she asked casually.

Celes smiled at her protectiveness but the smile faded slightly when she thought of what had gone down between the two of them. "Lee was great, we just talked about that boyfriend of his." Celes said shrugging.

"You're not telling me something." Roman said grabbing Celes' hand so that she had to look at her.

Celes looked at Roman, she loved her, she needed to be honest with her. "Well, he also kissed me...and I may have, you know, kissed him back."

Roman's eyebrows shot up almost into her hairline, "Really?" she asked. She didn't know how to feel about that. She knew there was a part of her that wanted to go find him and… She frowned, what did she want to do to Lee. She blushed as she looked away. There was a great many things she wanted to do to Lee… And to Celes for that matter, but she couldn't bring herself to be upset about it. In a very weird way she found herself turned on. She shook her head to clear it. It had to have been the after effect of lust that she had for Celes while they were in the tub… but shouldn't she be upset? Then it kind of dawned on her. He had a boyfriend and he chose to kiss Celes. When he had kissed her he had broken up with his last 'boyfriend'. That wasn't fair! She started to get worked up but then she remembered what happened between them third year when Kevin had caught them. Her body started to tingle again. "I don't know what to say." she told Celes as she looked at her in a confused way.

"Honestly, neither do I. He said he could sense you on me though...maybe it had something to do with all the 'time' we've been spending together; our growing attraction to one another." Celes said and then lowered her voice. "A very dark part of me wanted him bad Ro."

She bit her lower lip as she looked at Celes. A part of her still wanted Lee just as much as she wanted Celes. Her frowned deepened. "I think I'm cursed." She told her. "I find myself wanting both of you just as equally and I'm confused about that, but another part of me thinks I'll never have a sexual encounter with either one of you. For one Lee has a boyfriend and is keeping his distance from me, which I understand. And two, you can't be sexually active in another five weeks! Is this bad that I think this?"

"No Ro, and honestly it may not be five weeks...I think I could be sexually active with you as soon as right now if I wanted to...I think I'm a little scared though. And as for Lee...I think that it's interesting...and worth exploring…" Celes said blushing deeply.

Roman chuckled and held Celes' hand. "Maybe it's just our teenage hormones kicking in." She kissed her fingers. "If you are scared I understand. We will take is slow. I do love you and I don't want you to think that I'm here just for sex. I care about your feelings. You are my soul mate. So if Poppy said five weeks then we will wait five weeks… or more. I don't care."

"Well I'll do some of my own reading on it, and we can always just have heavy snogging sessions." Celes giggled. "And I love you too, and I'm not only in this for the sex either. Although the idea of having you and Lee at the same time is quite thrilling."

Roman giggled, as she looked down, "I... I feel the same way." She looked up at Celes, then shook her head. "I was going to suggest asking my father but this is just too embarrassing to ask him."

Celes giggled harder. "No, lets not ask your father about that." she said reaching out and tucking a stray hair of Roman's behind her ear. "I have to finish this homework though. I go back to class tomorrow and as much as I want to climb into bed and have you ten ways to next sunday I really can't." she leaned forward and kissed Roman deeply.

Roman chuckled as she pulled away, "Ten way to next sunday?" She got up and kissed her on the forehead. "You gave me a great idea on another experiment… well, actually maybe two. But get your work done. If you need me I'll be in my room… trying not to distract you."

"Trying...yeah, I'll be out here trying not to think about you in there, on your bed." Celes chuckled turning red as she turned to her essay.

Celes was rather proud of herself an hour later when she had finished the essay. She rolled it up and put it in her bag and then got up and stretched. She went over to the small kitchenette and grabbed a water from the counter and downed half the bottle as she stood staring at Roman's cracked door. She was still awake so Celes knew that if she went in there now she could probably have her way with Roman. She ached for her and in the end her desire to be close to Roman won out. She walked across the floor and pushed open Roman's door.

Roman looked up from the notebook she was writing in and smiled. "Get your homework done?" she asked.

Celes nodded as she walked slowly over to the side of the bed Roman was laying in. She leaned down and kissed Roman deeply crawling into the bed and getting on top of her, all the while Roman was placing her notebook on the other side of the bed. She seized Celes' hips and returned the kiss. They devoured each other, and Celes could only feel what Roman was feeling which was insane lust and love. She worked her hands up under Roman's shirt and removed it leaving her naked from the waist up, she ducked down and took one of Roman's nipples in her mouth, teasing the other one with her hand. Roman arched her back giving a moan. Encouraged by her moans Celes trailed her kisses down Roman's stomach and then along the waistline of her pj pants then with an evil twinkle in her eyes she pulled down the pants and began to kiss farther down Roman's body until her mouth came into contact with Roman's soft center. It was wet and throbbing and Celes worked it with her tongue while Roman bucked moaning all the while. She could tell Roman was reaching climax because Roman had seized her hair and was pumping into her face now. She drove Roman over the edge and Roman let out a scream as she shook from her orgasm. Celes then kissed her way back up Roman's body and ended by kissing her deeply on the lips. She pulled away and grinned at Roman still sitting on top of her.

"She said _I_ couldn't have sex, she never said I couldn't _give_ you sex." Celes said and Roman let out a little laugh. She was still shivering from her orgasm. Celes crawled over and got under Roman's blankets after moving the forgotten notebook out of her way and Roman followed suit. Celes curled up closer to Roman and began kissing her again, this time she just trailed her hand down Roman's body and let her hand do all the work it didn't take long because Roman was still coming down from the last one and Celes had Roman coming again. She delighted in the way she felt when she did that for Roman. Roman looked exhausted, as she should after something like that and Celes wasn't too far behind her the two girls fell asleep tangled in each other and Celes didn't wake until her Mark woke her at nearly dawn.

Celes awoke still tangled in Roman and peeled herself away. She looked down at her arm and saw that he was calling his Death Eaters. She got off the bed and Roman moaned turning over and Celes smiled down at her but it only lasted a second before her arm gave another protest to the Mark. She hissed and grabbed a robe and left Roman's room quietly. She shut the door and headed for the entrance of her apartment. She exited into an empty hallway and looked around, she held onto her arm as she rushed down the corridor. She was in route to her uncle's office when she ran into Dumbledore.

"Oh sir, I'm sorry. I was going to see my Uncle." she said looking up at him. He gave her a soft smile looking at her arm.

"Ms. Diggory? Is everything alright?" he asked feigning ignorance.

"Oh Sir, you and I both know I'm not doing my best." Celes said softly and looked away.

"I am sorry that your brother died Celes." he said his voice soothing her.

"Thank you sir, I'm sorry he died too." she said sounding a little angry. "He's back and the ministry isn't doing anything."

"I know you are angry, and I'm sorry. How about I walk you to Severus' office. I was just coming from there myself." he asked and Celes nodded and followed him.

When they came to her uncle's office she opened the door and her uncle looked up. She hadn't seen him since his brief visit in the hospital a few days ago. He gave a small smile and looked at the Headmaster.

"Just dropping her off Severus." He said and left them alone.

"Uncle Sev, do you feel it?" she asked moving forward and pulling her sleeve back.

"Yes Celes, I do." he said getting up and taking her arm. He pulled out his wand and looked into her eyes. "I'm going to do something to your mark so that he can not find you." Severus said and Celes flinched. "Trust me."

She looked up at him and he didn't say anything but suddenly she felt her arm ripping apart and she gave a shriek through her gritted teeth. He kept going and Celes tried to pull away. She looked down at her arm, it was bleeding.

"Celes please, we have to mutilate the Mark its the only way." he said and kept going his eyes were filled with tears. Celes began to cry and then he was done. Celes pulled away breathing hard. She babied her arm and went to pull out her own want.

"No Celes you can not heal it. It has to heal on its own." he said grabbing some bandages and some kind of ointment. He spread it out over her now bleeding arm and then wrapped it. "Clean it every few hours and replace the bandages."

Celes nodded, whatever salve he used the pain was subsiding in her arm.

"He won't be able to find me now?" she asked.

"No he won't." Severus said.

"Did you...did you do the same thing to your arm?" she asked.

"No, it is...important that he knows where I am." Severus said

"What aren't you telling me?" Celes asked watching her Uncle.

"You dont need to know what is going on Celes." Severus sighed turning away for a minute. He picked up a book and slid it across the desk. Celes looked down at it and read the title of the book and smiled.

"I've been looking for this one." Celes said pulling the healing herb book off his desk.

"I know." he said. "Happy Birthday, I was going to bring it to you while you were in the hospital but I thought best to wait."

"I love it." she said softly.

"Celes, how are you doing? Really?" Severus asked.

"I'm, surviving." she said. "I'm moving slowly. I won't even see my dad, I can't look at the Hufflepuff table without my heart feeling like it's going to fall out of my chest."

"I'm so sorry Celes." Severus said.

"I know, everyone is so sorry but do they really know? Do they? Do you?" she asked looking at him and Celes saw a sadness behind his eyes that made her gasp. "You do."

"I've lost someone before." he said softly and Celes nodded.

"I'm sorry Uncle Sev, I'm just angry. I'm angry all the time and I'd rather not be. I know that I'll get better with time but right now it doesn't seem like it." she said.

"Well stick close to Ms. McTaggert." he said and Celes smiled and warmed at the mention of Roman and then she remembered she needed to be back.

"I'll stick close to Ro, but I have to go get ready for classes. Thanks for the book." she said and practically ran out his door and back to her apartment. She was so eager to be close to Roman again she could hardly contain herself. She crawled back into the bed with her and pressed her body against Roman's back and Roman rolled over.

"Morning." she said kissing her deeply. Celes fell into the kissing like it was breathing and intertwined herself with Roman. Roman's leg slid between Celes' and Celes moaned with desire. She deepened the kiss and her hand traveled down to Roman's breast again. She toyed with her nipples making Roman whimper with desire. Celes wanted all of Roman in that moment and in a frenzy she pushed her hand down between Roman's legs and worked Roman towards another climax.

"This is not fair, how'd you get so good at this?" she asked panting.

"I read a lot." Celes said kissing her again. As Roman climaxed again she let out a little yell and then kissed Celes once again. "We have class soon." Celes said brushing back Roman's hair off her face.

"I know." Roman said and then she noticed the bandaging. "What happened to your arm Celes?" she asked.

Celes looked down at it and pulled away slightly. "Oh, uh, Uncle Sev took care of my dark mark so that Voldemort can't track me." Celes said offhandedly.

"Are you okay?" Roman asked looking at her in shock.

"No, yeah I'm fine." Celes said getting out the bed. "I'm going to grab a shower and get ready for school. You're always welcome to join me." she said and went into the bathroom. Roman followed her in but all they did was bathe, obviously Celes' devil may care attitude about her mutilated mark wasn't sitting well with Roman because she left Celes to go change on her own. Roman was worried about her and Celes felt bad for the way she was acting. After she was ready for class and had her bag she went back into Roman's room and sat down next to Roman on the edge of the bed.

"Sorry, I know you're worried." Celes whispered. "I'm fine really though. Dont worry about it. It'll heal up in a few weeks and then it'll be a thing of the past okay?"

"Yeah, I suppose so." Roman said looking up at her. "Just don't, not talk to me okay?"

"I will never, not talk to you when I need to okay." Celes said cupping her cheek and kissing her softly.

"So how do we address this outside of our apartment?" Roman asked.

"I don't think it's anyone's business, we have always been overly affectionate with one another, why does anyone have to know that it's changed?" Celes asked.

"But what about our friends...and Lee?" Roman asked blushing, it was clear she couldn't help herself.

"We can tell Lee if you want to." Celes said suggestively and Roman hit her good arm lightly.

"You nasty." she said.

"You like it." Celes said kissing her breathless and getting up and leaving the room before she took Roman again.

When she entered the Great Hall for breakfast everyone turned to look at her. She didn't even give it a second thought and went to Gryffindor table and plopped down in between Hermione and Harry. She smiled at both of them and picked up a plate as Roman sat down. She filled the plate and placed it in front of Roman and gave her a wink.

"Eat up." she said filling her own plate. As she sat eating she listened to everyone chatting and noticed Harry was babying one of his hands. Celes pointed to it. "You okay Harry?" she asked and felt a spike of jealousy from Roman.

"I'm fine Celes, don't worry about it." he said looking at Roman and then back at Celes. Celes looked at Roman or explanation but Roman just shook her head. Celes shrugged, finished her breakfast and when everyone headed off she fell back and grabbed Roman's hand. They walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Celes finally saw the PPL in the flesh and hated her almost instantly. She sat down as she started her lesson. Basic magic, they were fifths years studying for OWLs not children being taught about magic for the first time. She sat very irritated throughout the class and then when she got bored she started messing with Umbridge by doing wandless magicing stuff around the room. She would turn back to something and it would be gone. She would turn and find it where she didn't leave it. Other students began laughing and Umbridge kept getting angrier and angrier because she couldn't figure out who was doing it. Celes could tell in her mind no fifth year could possibly know wandless magic.

By the end of class everyone knew it was Celes but no one said anything all loving the joke. Celes grinned as she left the class with Roman.

"You are so bad." Roman said as they walked to their split off point Celes to morning Arthemancy and Roman to her next class.

"You like it." Celes said repeating her words from that morning, she touched Roman's lower back making her shiver with desire.

"You're right." she said breathlessly and Celes grinned resisting the urge to kiss her on the lips and leaned in kissing her cheek and brushing her hand over Roman's breast before she took off down the hall towards her class chuckling.

She entered the class and was instantly angry, not only was Draco in this hour of the class but so was Blaise. She sat down on the other side of the room to avoid them but it didn't work cause Blaise came over and sat down next to her at her table. She looked at him pointedly. "What Blaise?" she snapped.

"I just want to see Rick." he said not backing down from her cold stare.

"Rick? Is that what you're calling Alaric?" she asked.

"Well yeah, the last part of his name is Rick...so yeah." he said looking away for a minute. Celes felt her resolve weaken a little.

"Maybe...when Alan brings him to visit in a few weeks, _if_ you stop threatening me about him. You handled it horribly Blaise and I'm not ready to forgive you but I realize that keeping you from your son isn't okay either." she said and Blaise looked relived. So relived in fact that he touched her leg without thinking and Celes looked up shocked at the desire that shot through her at that moment. "Don't...don't touch me." she said pulling away and Blaise blushed a little pulling away.

"Sorry." he said sheepishly and before he could move away the teacher started the class and she was stuck next to him the whole class feeling all the things she felt for him last year, and she hated it.

After class she rushed out in search of Roman, she found her in the Great Hall already eating, no doubt someone filled her plate for her. She looked up and smiled but when she saw the look on Celes' face she stood and Celes seized her hand practically dragging her out of the Great Hall and to the closet private place she could find, which was a broom cupboard. She pushed Roman in and kissed her deeply and with such desire that Roman felt confused. Celes pulled away suddenly angry at her reaction to Blaise and blushed looking at Roman.

"I'm sorry." she said panting and Roman shook her head and sat down with Celes on a few overturned buckets.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Blaise…" Celes didn't get to finish because Roman was up in a roar.

"What did he do this time?" she demanded.

"Nothing, he just asked to see Lark, which I said maybe, if he stopped threatening me. He agreed." she said before Roman could interrupt again. "But... Ro he touched me on the leg and... I'm still very attracted to him." she said dropping her face into her hands. "How can I be attracted to him still? He got me pregnant, he broke my heart!"

"I don't know," Roman said putting her arms around Celes.

"I'm sorry I did that, I was so angry, and well, turned on…" she said softly blushing.

"Its okay." Roman said softly brushing her hair away from her face and Celes grabbed her hand and looked at her.

"No Ro, its really not. Don't let me...use you when I'm angry okay?" Celes said.

"But I like it…" Roman said blushing deeply.

"So do I, but I want to make love to you, not have angry sex with you." Celes said kissing her softly. "You deserve love, not anger."

"So do you." Roman said kissing her and trailing her hand up Celes' leg. Celes spread her legs almost involuntarily as Roman touched her hesitantly. She looked at her and nodded leaning back as Roman took her to climax. Celes took deep heaving breaths and gave a strangled cry when she finally came. She opened her eyes and smiled at Roman.

"Well, now we do this in broom cupboards." she said kissing Roman and righted her cloths.

"I think we are in raging teenage hormones mode." Roman said getting up and offering Celes a hand.

Celes took it and stood. "I guess, but I'm glad its you." she said.

"I'm glad its you too." Roman said and they kissed again.

"We better get back to lunch before it looks suspicious." Celes said pulling back slightly. Roman nodded and opened the door reluctantly and the two girls went back to the Great Hall for lunch hand in hand.

After lunch Roman made her way to the library only to get side tracked by Lee. She paused and watched him. She straightened her shoulders, went to him, grabbed his arm, and dragged him to an empty class room. Once inside she pushed him up against the door and stared up at him.

"Something on your mind?" He asked her as he raised an eyebrow."

"I know you kissed Celes." She had wanted it to come out as a growl and be threatening but it came out more like a seductive whisper. She felt Lee give a shiver and in return she found herself pressing against him.

His hands slid down her sides to her hips and pulled her closer to his hips. He took in a deep breath as if he was savoring his favorite scent. "Have I ever told you I loved the way you smell when you are wet?"

She frowned up at him a little confused then one of his hands slid down further and cupped her crotch. Roman gasped and quickly stepped away from him. "I feel that I should do something or say something." she told him as she tried to sound like a disgruntled girlfriend.

"So now that you know I kissed her, what are you going to do about it?" He asked as he took a step towards her.

Roman took another step away and stuck out her chin. "She is my girlfriend. If you are angry at me still, then take your anger out on me, not her."

He frowned at her as if he was confused. Then he shook his head as if he was trying to clear it. He took a few steps and tried to catch her.

Roman gasped as she felt his lust and quickly moved around him.

"Damn it, Ro. Come here." He growled at her.

Roman shivered with lust and shook her head. "No. I already did this once with Fred. I'm not doing the same to Celes." She quickly left the class and walked to the library. The whole time she thought about everything that has been happening. Everything seemed so odd and out of place but yet in place. She went down a couple of aisles until she found the what she was looking for. Ever since last night she found herself feeling hotter than normal. Especially after that little run in with Lee. She slipped off her robe as she leaned against a bookshelf. She flipped open a book and thumbed through it as she thought about everything that had happened this summer and her detention. She hadn't told Celes any of it but at the same time she really hadn't gotten the chance to do so. The detention was easy enough to explain but when it came to her summer she felt scared.

Tears blinded her vision as she thought about it. She had killed her mother. What kind of person did that make her? She sniffed and closed her eyes and wiped at them.

"Do you usually come to the library to cry?"

Roman looked up and saw Dalton smiling at her. She rolled her eyes, "What do you want?"

"I came over here to pick on you but it looks like I actually need to cheer you up." He wiped a tear from her cheek and she swatted at his hand.

"No touchy of the Roman." She said as she placed her book next to her things and went back to looking for more books. "How was your summer?" She asked.

"Okay, what's wrong? You never ask about me. You only tease me and hit me."

Roman frowned as she turned and faced him, "No I don't. "

"Yes you do." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Where is little Gray?" She smiled. "Did the gift work for you?"

Dalton gave a slight blush, "Yes it did. I've been meaning to thank you."

"You already thanks me, remember? That 50 galleons and licorice was well worth everything."

He laughed, "I did hear that you made a killing."

"Sure did."

"Well, I still want to thank you. If you ever need anything just let me know."

Roman shook her head as she turned back to the shelf. "Whatever you say. "

"Well, I'm going to go."

Roman waved him off as she pulled out more books from the shelf.

"By the way, I love your legs." He whispered as he ran his fingers up her thigh.

Roman gaped as she turned around and started to hit him with a book. "You stinking Slytherin. Be gone from me!"

He laughed as he walked away.

She grumbled under her breath as she packed her bag with books. She was just now cooling off and then he had to go and do something to cause her hormones to go into overdrive. She galred at him as she walked out the library and went to her work room.

She had a new idea for a new product. Well, on a few new products. One was for an energy potion. She had tried a few years back but Celes had stopped her... it had more candy in it then potion so it was basically an excuse to eat the candy. The other idea was to create fantasies. She knew her mother had the gift to put people into a trance and create a different world around them. It was something her family in Hawaii was teaching her during the summer.

She bit her lower lip as she flipped open her journal. Last night before Celes had came to her she had been sketched the dark hooded figure that she now knew lived inside her.

When she had thought back on the day Snape had tried to put her under the imperius curse; she understood why it wouldn't work and why Snape had stopped. Her mother said that the soul eaters had no loyalties so they could not be told what to do but they could be persuaded at the right price.

A tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and shook her head to clear it. With a deep breath she set out to work.

It was nearly suppertime when Celes had found her. Roman looked up from her work and smiled at her. "Hey Cel Bear." She kissed her as she came around the desk. "Mmm, give me another one."

Celes giggled and kissed her again. "What are you working on?" She asked.

"Remember last night when you said you had a lot of homework to do and that you wished you could be in bed with me?"

Celes gave a little blush but nodded, "Yes."

"Well I figured I can create an energy potion. So that you would have energy to do both."

"Is that so?" She asked with a sly grin.

"What can I say; I like to have my cake and eat it."

Celes laughed. "You are never going to let that go, are you."

"No way. I am determined to prove that saying wrong."

Celes shook her head as she looked at everything on the desk. She paused and picked up Roman's journal. "What is this?" She asked as she looked at the sketching of the dark hooded figure. "Why do you have a drawing of a Dementor?"

Roman frowned, "a what?" She looked over and paused. "That's a soul eater."

"I know what they do but why do you have it drawn in your journal."

"Wait, you know of these things?"

"Of course I do. They are the guards at the Prison of Azkaban. They are dementors."

Roman sat down in surprise as everything started to come together. "Those things were here 3rd year weren't they? And Fudge brought one in last year when they found out about the fake Moody, didn't he?"

Celes looked worriedly at her. "Yes. No one knows where they come from. Ro, what is wrong?"

"I know where they come from." She whispered. "I know how they are made too."

"Okay..." Celes cupped her face. "Talk to me."

"We call them Soul Eaters. They are created in two ways; when one abandons their emotions and memories or when something so terrible happens to them that they lose the strength to live on. Once you become a soul eater there is no going back. You become a cold, lost soul that feeds on negative emotions and souls. If you say they are at the prison then they must feed off the negative emotion of the prisoners."

"That is exactly what they do. Its so that the witches and wizards cannot escape."

Roman wiped at her eyes. "Sirius escaped didn't he?"

"Yeah,"

Roman nodded as she looked at her drawing. She would have to talk to him about it. How did he escape from them? Was it possible that you could be undetected by these things? Obviously they knew of her existence and they sensed the soul eater inside her. That is why they had latched on to her third year. It also explained why Celes thought she was down a dark road. Then last year when Fudge brought one in they had called strongly to her. If her father hadn't been there who knew what would had happened. That also brought her to two other questions. Had she blacked out before? And why was she born with one?

Celes wrapped her arms around and kissed the back of her neck. "Come back to me," she whispered as her hand slowly trailed up to her breast.

Roman gasped in pleasure as she held onto the desk. She heard Celes chuckle as she slipped her hand inside her shirt and made contact with her skin. Her nipples grew painfully hard. Her body heated uncomfortably as a hot liquid settled between her legs.

Ever since last night and all day it had been like this. With one look, touch, or whisper she became hot and ready. Always ready for anything. She knew people were noticing her more. She seemed to have a certain sway to her hips that boys were stopping just to look. Girls also seemed to flock more towards her. They seemed to giggle and flirt more. But she only seemed to have eyes for Celes. The mere thought of her drove her wild.

Roman moaned as Celes' fingers played with her hard nipples and kissed the back of her neck. One hand slid down her skirt and entered her core. Roman moaned loudly as she climaxed then and there. Celes chuckled again.

"Mmm, I must be doing something right if I can get you off that fast. Shall we see if we can get another one out of you?"

Roman whimpered as she bit her lower lip. Her legs were still shaking as she felt Celes' fingers work in and out of her. She moaned as she felt her teeth scraped the back of her neck. Her legs slowly started to give out on her but Celes lowered with her.

Her thigh muscles started to tighten as her pelvis bucked against her fingers. Roman dug her nails into the desk and then screamed out as her orgasm took over her. She sagged against the desk as she leaned her forehead against the cool wood. Her whole body shook as she tried to normalize her breathing.

"I think I didn't know what the hell I was asking last night when it came to sex." She breathed.

Celes laughed as she leaned against her and nuzzled her neck.

"I swear, I am going to get you back for this. I'm supposed to be the one that is the aggressor. You are like a demon."

Celes gave an evil laugh. "Be afraid. Be very afraid."

Roman laughed then her stomach growled. "What the hell!" She growled. "You would have thought I never ate before."

"That usually happens after sex." Celes laughed.

"See, this is why I need to develop that energy potion. Just you wait, I am never going to let you sleep."

"Ooh, I look forward to that."

Roman turned her head and kissed her. "No complaining when you miss class the next day." Roman kissed her again and then straightened her clothes. They went down to supper. Celes told her what went on in her classes as they ate. Towards the end of dinner Celes leaned closer to Roman.

"Lee has been staring over here all night." She whispered.

Roman glanced up and gave a blush. She had been trying to ignore him all supper. "I... may have caused him to become aroused earlier today." She whispered back.

Celes' eyebrows shot up in question.

"I'll explain later."

"Roman," Dalton called out.

Both Roman and Celes turned. Roman frowned at him as he sat on the other side of her. "What do you want now?"

He smiled at her. "I was wondering if you would go to Hogsmeade with me when we get the chance."

Roman felt Celes' jealousy spike as she placed a hand on her thigh. "No."

"Oh, come on."

Celes' hand squeezed tighter and her hand went higher. The only indication that Roman gave was a small gasp.

"You have a girlfriend, take her." Roman told him.

He chuckled, "I need your help picking something out for her."

She eyed him suspiciously.

he leaned into her ear, "I will pay you in anything."

Celes' hand went higher and Roman gave a squeal and pushed him away. She crossed her legs at the knees and held Celes' hand. "Look here, you stinky Slytherin…"

He laughed, "This is great. I will meet you at the Three Broomsticks." Then he walked away.

Roman gaped at him, "The nerve of him."

Celes pretended to look over her shoulder as she whispered in Roman's ear, "That ear is mine when we are alone. I don't like him touching you."

Roman smiled as a shiver went down her spine. "In that case, I should tell you he ran his fingers up my leg."

Celes hissed.

"I know this is wrong, but I like this jealous side of you."

Celes laughed out loud and some of the people around them looked. After supper they went up to their apartment. They barely got through when they started to strip their close and have at each other. Celes delivered on her threat about Roman's ear. She nibbled on it and sucked her earlobe. What had pushed Roman over the edge was when she stuck her tongue in her ear.

When she came down from her climax Roman jumped Celes and had her way with her. She enjoyed getting Celes off with her mouth. When she was close to orgasming she had pulled on her long hair.

They had laid on their livingroom floor entwined with each other. Roman's hair covered Celes as she ran her fingers through it.

Roman gasped as she sat up and looked at Celes. "I have an idea." She told her.

"What?"

"I need feathers. Feathers would make this more interesting. More intimate... wait. Lee owes me one of his peacock feathers. I need to go get it."

"Hey!" Celes said as she pulled on her hair. "Don't you think it will be a little rude to demand a peacock feather this late at night?"

Roman pouted as she laid back down. "I want a feather... or maybe a rose. Mmm, roses can be nice."

"Hey, why was Lee staring at you throughout supper?"

"I may have aroused him." She bit her lower lip. "I tried to confront him about him kissing you but it didn't work out too well. Before you say anything, I would like to say I think as your girlfriend I had to confront him or do something. It's all about the principal of the matter."

Celes smiled, "Okay, Ro."

"So I confronted him but my tone didn't work. I wanted to sound fierce and threatening but I ended sounding like some aroused woman. Next thing I know he is telling me he likes the scent of my arousal and he tried to come at me. I told him we were together and that if he was still angry with me then come after me not you. Then I left."

Celes continued to run her her fingers through her hair. Roman drew little circles on Celes stomachs. She watched her flesh rise with chills. They laid there quite content with each other. No one saying anything or doing anything except for light caresses here and there. For the first time in weeks she felt calm and at peace. She closed her eyes and drifted asleep.

It wasn't a peaceful sleep, it was far from it. Her nightmare had started up again. It was always the same. It started off with the death of of her mother, then her father, Alaric, Fred, George, Lee and lastly Celes. When they were all lying around her dead she would turn to the mirror and see herself for who she really was, a soul eater, cold, uncaring, with no memories.

Roman woke with a violent jolt. She was sweating but yet she shivered from the coldness of her dreams. Her breathing was labored and her lungs hurt. She sat up and held her spinning head. When she looked around she noticed she was still on the floor with Celes. She was sound asleep. Roman grabbed the throw blanket and covered her as she got up. She went to the shower and turned on the hot water and sat under it. She brought her knees up to her chest and cried. She allowed her hot tears mix with the water.

"It's my fault." she mermered over and over again as she rocked. "Its all my fault." For what felt like hours she sat there just crying. She wanted it all to go away. The guilt, the anger, the hurt, the sorrow, she wanted it all to go away. However it all seemed to get worse and it scared her.

After a while she stood up and allowed the blood to rush through her legs. She braced herself against the wall and let the hot water warm her further. After washing her hair she started to lather the soap to wash her body and then looked down. "Shit!" she hissed. Blood ran with the water as it went down the drain. Of all days she had to have started her period. With a frustrated sigh she quickly washed and then wrapped herself in a towel. As she was walking out Celes was walking in.

"Hey, you showered without me." she pouted.

Roman laughed, "Sorry," she kissed her and then walked to her room and quickly dressed. When she was done dressing Celes came out the bath. Roman cupped her face and kissed her soundly.

"What was that for?" she asked a little breathless.

"You can't play with me for the rest of the the week. So, now I get to focus on you." She whispered.

Celes frowned, "I want to play with you too."

"Not this time, mother nature thinks I need a rest."

Realization entered her eyes, "Oh, I see." then she gave a wicked smile, "You can play with me, but I'm going to make this into a tease you will never forget."

Roman moaned, "You can be quite cruel when you want."

Celes laughed as she brushed against her breast and walked to her room. "Day one."

By day four Celes was pretty worn out and even managed to miss afternoon classes on day two. Roman was so sexually frustrated that with every chance she got she had Celes; weather it be in their apartment, her work room, an empty classroom between classes, a broom closet during lunch, or a secluded area of the library.

Celes awoke in Roman's bed late evening on day five and looked over at a sleeping Roman. She sighed and slipped out of the bed and tip toed into her room. She threw on a pair of black jeans and and black fitted t-shirt she grabbed a sweater and put on some trainers. She slipped out of their apartment silently and found herself sighing in relief? Not that was just a flook. She made her way down the dark corridor, it was after curfew so she was careful about where she went. She knew one of the only places in the school she could go was a place she wasn't sure she was ready for yet. Her astronomy tower, the room she used to talk for hours on end with Cedric, the room where she had...no she was going to go there and not think about that.

She made it to the door outside of it and just stood in front of it for five minutes before she finally opened the door and climbed up the stairs slowly. When she reached the top the memories overwhelmed her and she finally started crying. She sat down in the middle of the floor and just cried for a little while until someone came into the tower they cleared their throat and Celes turned to find Blaise standing in the stairwell so you could only see his torso and up.

"Celes?" he asked coming fully into the didn't even think and she ran into his arms. He seemed shocked because it took him a minute to wrap his arms around her. He stroked her hair and shooshed her as she cried. Then as if she realized it was Blaise she pulled away violently and walked across the room crossing her arms still crying.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I... I come up here a lot, kind of to punish myself for what I did to you." he said and Celes felt her heart breaking again.

"Blaise, you need to stop being so nice. I want to be mad at you and I can't be if you're all nice to me. Its like you had a brain fart when I got pregnant and got all... and now you're Blaise... my Blaise and I hate you for it." she said. "I'm angry. So angry at everything. My brother died, you cheated on me...not in that order." she said wiping her cheeks and sitting down against the wall. Blaise came over and sat down next to her. He didn't touch her but he did turn to her.

"I didn't handle it well, at all. I freaked out. I thought my mum was going to find out and she was going to... I don't know, probably try to kill the baby inside of you cause she's crazy like that about pure blood. And then this summer, when I saw you, you'd gone and made all these decisions about Rick, I was so angry at myself and I lashed out again. I'm sorry…" Blaise said softly.

Celes looked up at him, she didn't completely trust him but she was ready to try. "Blaise, Alan is bringing Lark for Thanksgiving... you know that American holiday... and I would like you to come." Celes said touching his chest with her hand he leaned forward and kissed her and she didn't stop him but when he pulled back she smiled a little.

"You cant do that again, I'm with Ro now, okay?" she said and he nodded.

"Sorry." he said.

She shrugged a little trying not to think about how familiar and nice it felt to kiss Blaise. But she was with Roman. "You helped with the whole crying thing. This place could be okay again." she said looking around only to snort a laugh. "No it couldn't, I need a new place."

"Yes…" Blaise said and got up offering his hand.

"What?" she asked and took his hand and he pulled her up.

"You should probably go back to your apartment." he said still holding onto her hand.

"Blaise, I can't sleep at night...I sleep for a few hours then usually I just lie awake in my bed...or Roman's, or the floor…"

"I get it." Blaise said stopping her rant.

"Its just bad. So I'm up for now." she said softly looking down at their hands.

"Okay well what do you want to do?" he asked, "You have me for the night." Celes smiled up at him and the two of them ended up spending the night dodging Filtch and generally just running around the school. At dawn Blaise walked Celes back to her apartment she stood on her toes and kissed his cheek and then went inside the apartment. She found Roman still asleep in her bed and stripped down to join her. She crawled into the bed leaning over and kissing her lightly so that she woke up.

"Good morning, Lover." she said smiling.

"God, Celes its freaking early!" Roman complained and Celes gave a chuckle.

"You know me early to rise." she said winking. Roman smiled and pushed herself up to kiss Celes. She returned the kiss eagerly as she felt Roman heat. She sighed as Roman trailed light fingers down her chest and then into her core. She gasped in ecstasy and thrust her hips into Roman's fingers her eyes shutting, her mouth opening just slightly. Roman drove her over the edge and she moaned loudly as she came. She opened her eyes and kissed Roman deeply before getting out of the bed and going to shower. Roman joined her a few minutes later and they made love again in the shower. After they were done cleaning up they dressed and headed down to breakfast both glowing from their morning romp. Celes kissed Roman's cheek affectionately and they sat down to eat. She began to fill Roman's plate when Lee joined them. Celes looked at him in surprise and he just gave her a heated look that made her blush and look back to the food she was putting on Roman's plate.

"So, what are you ladies up to today?" Lee asked.

"I don't know Lee, its Saturday." Roman said taking the plate from Celes and smiling at him.

"Awe, probably nothing then, yes?" Lee asked he still had a very heated look in his eyes.

Celes felt the heat from across the table and shifted as her core heated. She could tell Roman was feeling the same way. "Probably, homework catch up mostly I think. I missed class on Tuesday." Celes said and she felt Roman's hand touch her thigh. She looked at Roman and blushed deeply.

Lee leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand staring at Celes pointedly eyes still on fire.

Celes felt like she was being ganged up on; Roman slipped her hand up Celes' skirt and touched her. Lee could tell what was going on and she didn't like it; before Roman could go further Celes shot up and rushed from the Great Hall feeling very turned on and very upset all at the same time. She didn't think Roman was in on it but Lee knew what was going on and he was taking pleasure in it.

Celes found an abandoned classroom and went in she went over to a desk and leaned her forehead on the cool surface. What was going on with her? She was on fire by just a look from a boy she never even thought of in that way. Now all she wanted was to feel him against her. She gritted a scream of frustration as the door opened and Roman came in.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

"You did nothing wrong Roman, I'm just...overwhelmed is all." Celes said smiling and going to her and kissing her to reassure her. But her reassurance became a frenzy of desire and soon Celes was having her way with Roman period or no. She almost managed to get Roman to allow her to touch her but instead Roman changed the game mid way through and took Celes over the edge again and again until they both fell on the floor panting and tired.

"We have to stop doing this…" Celes panted. She was draped across Roman's body.

"Yeah, we'll never get anything done again." Roman responded.

"How about we agree to spend the day apart, for our school work and work sake." Celes said feeling a little less tired.

"Yes, I think thats best." Roman said but even though she was saying it she was already reaching out and touching her breasts again. Celes moaned and rolled away from her.

"I have homework my sweet, sweet lady." Celes said offering her hand when she got up.

Roman took her hand and kissed her when she was standing. Celes pulled away moaning and Roman moaned too.

"I will see you tonight my sweet." Celes said sashaying away.

After leaving Roman, Celes made her way to the library where she had the great displeasure of finding Draco and his horde there. This included one Pansy Parkinson. Draco saw her and his eyes shined with a familiar light she remembered from when they were young but as quickly as the look was there it was gone.

"Celes, come over here. Join us." Draco said and Celes tilted her head in question.

"Come now, we were once friends we can be again." Draco said gesturing to a chair next to him. Celes carefully made her way over there and sat down.

"So Celes, I was so sad for you when your brother died." Pansy said in mock concern and Celes nodded.

"Thank you Pansy that's surprising of you." Celes said trying to look away and pull out her homework but Pansy laid a hand on her arm and Celes had to bite back a hiss but she looked at her.

"And that whole scandal with Blaise. I mean he got you pregnant while he was sleeping with other women. I'm suprised he didnt get one of them pregnant as well." Pansy said and Celes' eyes narrowed.

"He only slept with Miranda, after I was pregnant Pansy." Celes said slowly, deadly.

"Oh Celes, honey, he was sleeping with many Slytherin girls while he was with you. Used to tell Draco that you were taking to long to be okay with having sex with him. Didn't he Draco?" she asked.

Draco who simply nodded.

Celes stood up eyes stinging. She stumbled away from the table and blindly made her way up into the stacks of the library. She sank down in the dusty isle and cried. She didn't hear when someone came rushing up.

"Celes, I can explain what Pansy said." Blaise said sitting down in front of her.

She looked up through her hair at him. "You can explain? Explain how you were sleeping with other girls while you were with me before you even got me pregnant?" she demanded.

"Celes, I only slept with Miranda, I swear it." Blaise insisted and Celes wanted so badly to believe him but all the things he had done wrong.

"To think i was going to let you back in. I was going to... I would have." Celes said grabbing her hair in frustration and Blaise grabbed her hands and she tore away violently. "Do not touch me!"

"Celes I swear i didn't sleep with anyone except Miranda while we were together. Its just Pansy messing with you. How do you think i found you. She's expecting us to have a huge fight and make a scene for some fun. Come on Celes you're the smartest girl in our year. You know it's true." Blaise said touching her cheek again. This time Celes didn't pull away she looked into his eyes and knew he wasn't lying.

"Smartest girl in our year, don't let Hermione hear you say that." Celes said softly and Blaise chuckled.

"Well we could alway give her what she wants…" Blaise said eyes alight.

Celes smiled. "I have a plan, just play along." Celes said getting up wiping her eyes and turning to him. "Do I look puffy?"

"You look beautiful." he said.

Celes smiled a little turning away and stocking out of the stacks. She allowed herself to look angry although it wasn't much of a leap to look angry when you felt angry. She marched up to Pansy and punched her in the face.

"What the hell Diggory?" Pansy exclaimed.

"You were the one sleeping with Blaise while i was with him. Not some other Slytherin girls you." Celes said and Blaise rushed forward.

"Come on Pansy there is no point in denying it." Blaise said giving her a cocky grin.

"We never." Pansy said and Draco got up and came over.

"Yeah Pansy no point in denying it." Celes said getting in her face.

"I didnt sleep with him, I didn't sleep with you Blaise and you know it." she shrieked. And Blaise stepped forward.

"Come on i already told her there is no point in denying it." Blaise said and Draco pulled his shoulder away from Pansy.

"Oy, back off." Draco said stepping between Celes and Pansy and turned to Celes. "Go."

"You dont give me orders Malfoy." Celes said darkness taking her she poked Draco's chest "You decided that when you broke off the engagement to me."

"Celes back off." he said and then suddenly there was a loud cracking noise and Celes watched as Draco fell down grabbing his leg. Shocked she stumbled back into Blaise. Had she done that, broken his leg with her anger. Blaise picked her up and rushed her out of the library.

"Did you do that?" he asked.

"I... don't know." Celes mumbled holding onto him. "T...take me to Roman. Please." she said and Blaise nodded and Celes directed him to where she was, her work room.

He burst through the door with her and Roman looked up and took one look at them and growled. "What did you do to her?" she asked.

"Nothing." Celes said. "He didn't... I think I broke Draco's leg with my mind." she said tapping on Blaise to put her down.

"With your mind, you don't have that kind of magic." Roman said.

"Oh I know, I'm hoping it was actually just wandless magic." Celes said sitting down on a chair in the room. Blaise stood there like a dummy and Roman turned to him.

"You can go, don't worry I've got this." Roman said and he looked at Celes who nodded and then he left.

"Why were you with Blaise?" she asked sounding jealous.

"No, dont sound like that." Celes said offhandedly. "He was helping me get even with Pansy for making me think some untrue things about my time with him."

"Okay, well I could have helped." Roman said.

Celes smiled at her and touched her cheek. "I know. I know babe." she said and leaned over and kissed Roman. She grabbed Roman's shirt and pulled her down so that Roman was sitting in her lap and they kissed deeply groping each others bodies. Celes pulled away and looked up at Roman panting.

She wanted Roman but she knew she had bigger problems. She couldn't control her wandless magic all of a sudden. Chaos was ensuing in her life. But she stopped thinking and pushed Roman's shirt off taking her nipple in her mouth and sucking it raw. Roman leaned back and moaned coming right then. Celes smiled as she continued to suck on Roman's nipple and grabbed one of Roman's leading it down to in between her legs which she spread as Roman touched her. She gasped and then moaned as Roman worked her to the sweetest orgasm. Then she fell back Roman on top of her half naked breathing hard.

"Something is wrong with my magic." she said after a few minutes. Roman pulled away.

"So it was wandless magic?" she asked getting up and grabbing her shirt she put it back on and went over and picked up a notebook.

"My wandless magic hasn't ever been this strong before. The things i did to Umbridge the other day was pretty much the extent but when Draco got in my face...I broke his leg with a thought." Celes said. She stood up and went over to lean over Roman's shoulder to see what she was doing.

"You're going to start journals on me?" she laughed.

Roman looked at her tenderly. "You think something's wrong, we are both scientists, we can figure it out." She kissed Celes softly.

"You're the best girlfriend ever." Celes said kissing her again.

"I know." Roman said and the two set to work on what was going on with Celes.

A few days later Celes was making her way to her afternoon classes when someone grabbed her arm and tugged her to a dark corridor and shoved her against a wall. Celes was up for a fight and tried to swing at the person who had her against the wall.

"I can hurt you and I don't know if you... Lee?" she said looking at the boy in shock. She wiggled away from him heaving a sigh. "You scared the shit out of me, Jesus."

"Sorry, I just had to...I don't know." Lee said following her deeper into the corridor and when she turned around he was standing right behind her.

Celes gave a small smile and touched his chest. "Lee, what are you doing?" she asked but before Celes could get an answer out of him he kissed her and she kissed him back. He pushed her up against the wall and trailed kisses down her neck and Celes moaned and then remembered herself, her eyes flew open. She pushed Lee's shoulders and he stepped back looking shocked.

"Lee!" she said.

"I... I don't know what happened... I don't know." Lee said softly leaning against the other wall.

"Lee, I am not Roman, and I am not Scott." Celes said and Lee looked at her.

"You don't think I know that? I dont know what the hell is going on with me." he stepped forward and grabbed her arm. "Why when I touch you I'm on fire. It's like... like when I'm around Roman." he said and Celes eyes filled with passion at her name and she suddenly seized Lee's lips again. And then she ripped away from him again.

"You have to get away from me…" she said winded. "And we can't tell Roman, you can't... we can't happen, and she can't know about this... this can't happen again Lee. Stay away from me." Celes said and she walked away hand on her heart taking deep breaths. She walked into her next class still feeling tremors of guilt when she sat down next to Roman.

"You alright, you weren't waiting at our meeting spot." Roman asked turning to her in concern.

"Oh, I just got held up. Don't worry." Celes wasn't exactly lying but usually she would have told Roman about what was going on with her.

"You sure, you feel kind of flustered." Roman said.

"Yeah, just in my rush to get here." she said pulling out her cauldron and clunking it on the table. Severus swept in and gave them a potion to work on. Celes began working on her's and trying not the think of what just happened. She was so involved in making her potion, one of the OWL ones Severus may have been assigning for the test, that she didn't notice that time was passing by at all. The next thing she knew she was done and her uncle was leaning over to check her potion. Celes turned a little startled and smiled.

"Good job, Celes. Ms. McTaggert your's is almost done but you are doing it correctly." Celes smiled and moved over to help Roman finish before her uncle could protest and he walked away.

"You don't have to help, I'm just as good at potion brewing as you." Roman said softly.

"I know but I want to." Celes said and she looked around and then cupped Roman's butt before helping her add another ingredient.

"You are so bad, not in class." Roman said blushing.

Celes chuckled. Class was over before she knew it and she left the room before Roman could catch up to her. She needed separation to collect herself or she was going to spill her guts about Lee and the last thing she wanted was to hurt Roman.

Roman frowned as she watched Celes leave. Something wasn't right and she was starting to get worried. But then again she was starting to worry about a lot of stuff. After packing her things she headed to her work room. Right before she got there she stopped and hid in a dark corridor. Someone was following her and she didn't know who. As he passed by she stepped out behind him.

"Really, Lee. You should know better than to follow me. What do you..." she trailed off as he whirled around on her. She was blasted by lust and it nearly took her down to her knees. He took a step towards her and she held a hand up. "No." She growled as she fought to stay in control. With all the training she had gone through she had thought she would be a pro at controlling emotions. She stepped back and leaned against a wall. She placed her hands behind her to keep them from reaching out to him.

"I need to know something." He asked as he took another step towards her. "Are you working on another charm."

"What charm?" She asked breathlessly.

"Damn it, Ro. You know what charm." He growled as he caught her by the arms and shook her.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she shook her head. "No."

"Bloody hell." He leaned down and kissed her hard.

Roman pushed him away and kicked his shins. "You bastard." Then she ran off. How could he think she would work on another charm like that when it only ended badly for her and him? She slammed the door to her work room. She leaned against it and slid down. Now she was aroused and hurt. Why would he do that to her? She took in a few calming breaths and focused on calming herself down. After a few minutes she finally was able to feel her own pain and demons.

She stood and went to her desk and tossed her bag to the side. She looked at everything on the desk and sat down. She felt empty on the inside. There seemed to be nothing that brought her happiness except for Celes.

Shaking her head Roman quickly done some work and then left. She looked at her watch and then made her way down for supper. She sat next to Celes and frowned at Lee whom sat further down the table watching them.

Fred and George arrived and sat on the other side of Roman. "Hey, we heard there is going to be a meeting at the Hog's Head for kids that want to learn to defend themselves against the dark arts. You in?" Fred whispered.

Celes perked as she leaned over Roman, "Who is holding the meeting? "

"Harry, Ron, and Hermione."

"Count us in." Celes told them.

"Brilliant." George made a quick note and Roman hit him.

"Hey, give me those journals you have on me. I need to do some research."

"Anything we can help with?" George smiled excitedly.

"No."

He frowned at her, "But I want to help."

"I said no."

"Why can't we help." Fred frowned.

"Because you guys wouldn't let me help you last year."

"That's not fair, Ro."

"Fair or not its the truth."

Fred's frown deepened. "Ro what are you hiding?"

"None of your business. After supper I'll go with you to..."

"We are not handing them over until you tell us what you are doing." Fred told her.

Roman glared at him, "Fred..." she paused as Celes placed a hand on her thigh.

She smiled at Fred and George, "She is doing some research for me, okay?"

"Not okay." Fred told her before George could say anything. "Look I know some bad things happened last year and I get it. Both of you are hurting, but both of you are acting strange."

"No we are not." Roman growled. "Why are you making this into such a big deal? I just need the damn journals."

"Your eyes are black every time we see you. The only time they are normal is when you are with her." Fred pointed at Celes.

Roman stood up and glared down at Fred. "Maybe because every time I'm around you guys, you piss me the fuck off!" She yelled. With that said she left the Great Hall.

Celes watched her go and then turned on Fred. "Oy, I'm your cousin asshat. What the fuck is your problem? Roman is my best friend and once she was yours too... the nerve of you both." she said throwing up her hands in anger. "How dare you... uh. Those journals are about her, she has every right to them. You should just give them to her you idiots." she got up grabbed her bag and with one quick glance at Lee she left the Great Hall as well.

Tears prickled Roman's eyes. She was so angry at Fred but at the same time she knew he was right. He struck too close to the truth that it scared her. She made her way to the apartment and went to the bath. Her whole body shook with the cold of the raging demon that was inside her. She filled the tub with the hot water and quickly stripped. Once she was inside she swam to the farthest end of pool. She took a deep breath and sank to the bottom and counted.

The hot water warmed her for a bit but then she felt the water around her grow cold. She pushed off the bottom and surfaced. She swam to the faucets and stood under them. From deep within her she sobbed. Her tears fell and mixed with the hot water. All she felt was coldness. Nothing seemed to warm her. Everyday she bathed at least three times just so that the hot water would keep her warm but it didn't last long. It was only when she was with Celes that she was hot and felt something real besides the cold, guilt, and sorrow. She had thought back on days where she was happy and carefree but the soul eater was determined to suck them away from her.

Roman gasped in surprise when she felt Celes touch her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around her and sobbed into her neck.

Celes shushed her as she smoothed out her hair and held her. "It's okay, Ro. He was just being an asshat."

Roman gave a little laugh as she allowed Celes to hold her. The heat of the water started to slowly warm her as did her embrace. Celes held her until she was done crying. For a long time they just floated by the edge of the pool holding each other. The dripping of water echoed loudly in the bath.

"I... killed my mother." She whispered.

Celes pulled back and looked at Roman. "You... killed your mother?" she said tears filling her eyes. She felt for the first time, pain coming from Roman. "Ro, you're hurting." she said. Surprised looking into Roman's eyes and seeing a little bit of what Fred said was true. How did she miss this?

"I hated him…" She started to cry again. "I hated my father for so long. I thought it was him. When it was me this whole time."

"Roman, baby. You're not making sense, you thought your dad killed your mom but... you did? Ro? You didn't kill your mom, you couldn't have. You're the kindest person I know." Celes said brushing her hair out of her face.

Roman shook her head. "I saw it. I saw it with my own eyes. It was me." she sobbed again. "She was there and the monster in me killed her."

"The monster… oh Ro, if it was the Soul Eater. You didn't mean to kill her, you couldn't have." Celes said kissing her cheeks tasting the salt.

She clung to Celes and shook her head. "But it was me. I saw it. I saw it and I couldn't do anything to stop it."

"Ro you said she died when you were a little girl, did you do this when you were little?" Celes asked taking her face in her hands and looking at her.

She nodded and sniffed.

"Roman you were a little girl, you didn't know how to control it. Its not your fault. Its the fault of your bloodline, but not you. You did not kill her, you Roman...you are not that monster inside of you. You know how I know that? Because you love me, Dementors...Soul Eaters whatever...are incapable of love. You love me Roman. You loved your mother and you wouldn't feel this bad if you didn't." Celes said tears spilling down her own cheeks.

Roman cried more, "I hated him and it was my fault. It was all my fault and he wasn't only protecting me… I still hate him. I hate him for keeping this from me and I hate him for showing me. But most of all I hate myself."

"No, you are not aloud to hate yourself." Celes said fiercely, shaking Roman a little. "That will only make your darkness grow, you've told me as much. Roman your father he loves you. He was protecting you and you love him. You say you hate him but you don't mean it. You wouldn't be this torn up if you didn't love him." Celes watched as she turned away. She grabbed her and kissed her. "I love you and I am not going to lose you."

Roman wrapped her arms around her and kissed her. She kissed her with everything she had and she was worth. Then all of a sudden like the life was sucked out of her she passed out.

Celes felt Roman slump against her and looked down, Roman was passed out. She drug her out of the tub and toweled her off and then drug Roman into her bedroom where she dressed Roman in an oversized t shirt of hers and got her into the bed she threw the blankets over her. She turned suddenly when she felt Lee outside of their apartment. She sighed grabbed another oversized t-shirt of Roman's and shrugged it on and went to let him in. When she saw him she sighed and narrowed her eyes at him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I felt Roman's pain." he said showing her his arms. Celes reached out and traced the markings. She seemed to always do that. He looked at her and pulled his arms away from her. She blushed and turned away.

"You're welcome to come in her room but you have to sit in the chair." she said poking him in the chest and he grabbed her hand and his face got serious.

"What's going on with her?" he asked and Celes sighed leading him to the couch.

She told him the whole thing, she didn't think Roman would mind. It was Lee, and Lee was one of her people. Lee covered his mouth and shook his head when she finished.

"She blames herself?" he asked and she nodded. They were still holding hands.

Celes' lip trembled. "I'm really worried about her, Lee." she whispered.

"Hey, we are going to get her through all this, okay?" He said.

She nodded feeling better but still very worried. "Look, we should probably go in there now; so she's not alone when she wakes up." Celes said getting up but Lee pulled her back down and she was practically on top of him. "Lee I told you…" she stopped when he pulled her into a hug and Celes clung to him and cried a little.

"She's going to be okay, you're going to be okay...it's all going to be okay, Celes." Lee said and then he pulled away and got up.

Celes smiled and they went into Roman's room and Celes crawled into the bed and Lee sat down in the chair in the corner. She curled up next to Roman. She and Lee watched each other from across the room until Celes finally nodded off.

Sometime during the night Roman woke. Her head ached and her eyes burned. She closed her eyes as she slowly sat up. When she looked around she noticed she was in her room. She was dressed in a long t-shirt and covered with her blankets. Her body ached as if she did multiple exercise all at once. She slowly turned and slipped out of her bed. As she walked towards the toilet she noticed there was someone sitting in a chair in the corner of her room. From the look of it, it was slumped and softly snoring. She frowned as she looked at the bed and knew that Celes was in her bed. She walked over to the corner chair for a closer look and noticed it was Lee sleeping in the chair. She frowned as she grabbed some jeans and went to the toilet. After relieving herself she pulled on her jeans and left the little apartment.

She made her way down to the the kitchens. Based on the empty halls it was apparently really late. As she rounded the corner she ran into Dalton.

He jumped in start and raised his wand. "Merlin's beard, Roman. You scared the living daylights out of me." he whispered. "Why are you walking around in the dark?"

Roman shield her eyes from the light shining from the end of his wand. She pushed it out of her face. "I got hungry." she said in a hoarse voice.

"You can see in the dark?"

"I have put this place to memory. So I know where exactly I am at all times." She told .

"Liar,"

"Suit yourself." she told him as she walked passed him.

"Hey," he told her as he caught up with her. "This seems like an odd question but why are you barefooted?"

"Why are you up and about?" she asked him.

"I'm actually looking for the kitchens." He told her.

She rolled her eyes as she felt him lie. They walked around in silence for a bit.

"Did you hear about the meeting at the Hog's Head?" he asked her.

"I hear a lot of things." she told him.

"I was thinking of going. Do you think Harry can really teach us how to fight?" he asked.

"He survived this long, if he doesn't know what he is doing, then he has awesome dumb luck." She told him. She paused in front of a painting of a fruit bowl and tickled the bottom of the pear. The wall opened and she stepped inside the dimly lit room.

A house elf came up to them and bowed deeply. "How may I serve the mistress and master?" it asked.

"I would like some hot tea and maybe some bread and meat." She told him. "If that is not too much trouble for you."

"Of course, mistress. Master what would you like?"

"Uh, tea please."

Roman sat at a table and bench and rested her head on her arm and closed her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Dalton asked.

"I'm tired." She whispered. "I'm just tired. I'm tired of everything. I'm tired of fighting, i'm tired of not being able to sleep the whole night, and most of all I'm just plain tired of feeling."

"You seem upset lately. Don't allow Fred to get to you." he told her.

Roman gave a dry laugh, "Fred is the least of my problems." The house elf returned and placed their orders on the table. She slowly sat up and drank slowly of the hot tea. It was enough to rehydrate her and cause more tears to form in her eyes. She wiped them and started to eat the bread and meat. "I'm also tired of putting on a mask in front of everyone." She added as she wiped her face on her shoulder.

"Then why don't you remove your mask in front of me?" he asked her as he placed his hand over hers.

She pulled it away, "You have a girlfriend, and I have a girlfriend."

Dalton tilted his head to the side as he watched her, "It's Celes, isn't it?"

Roman continued to eat and nodded.

"Did you two get into a fight?"

She snorted, "You seem awfully eager to know."

"I was just wondering…"

"No we didn't." She snapped. "We are in love and she wouldn't hurt me."

"I was just wondering. Usually when someone is in a relationship and they are upset they either get comfort from their significant other or they are mad at them."

Roman looked up at him and tilted her head to the side, "Is that what is going on with you and Lexi? she asked. "You two are fighting?"

He lowered his eyes, "Kind of." he told her.

"Is that why you wanted me to go with you to Hogsmeade? You want to make her jealous, don't you?"

"No, I wanted you to help me pick something out for someone." he told her.

"Who is she? Obviously you two are no longer together. Word has passed around that you two were on the rocks. Is it true?"

"We are on a break, we just needed some time away from each other. Ever since the death of Ced…" he trailed off as he watched her. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "I know you and Celes were really close to him."

"Celes is still hurting over him." more tears formed in her eyes, "His death was a deep blow to everyone that knew him. He didn't deserve to die like he did." She sniffed. "He was supposed to marry, have kids, and grow old. Not die because of that stupid moldy guy."

Dalton gave a little chuckle, "Do you always call him that?"

"Only when I'm pissed off." she told him. She drank more of her tea and finished eating.

"Do you believe he came back?"

Roman frowned at him, "Of course. Look at all the evidence of everything. First year, Quarrel had him stuck to the back of his head, second year he possessed Ginny Weasley, and last year Harry returned with Cedric's body. If Harry had wanted to kill him, why would he return with the body. That wouldn't make sense. Then to top it all off, the Ministry of Magic sent that psycho pink lady to take over."

Dalton raised his hands in surrender. "I was just asking. You don't need to bite my head off."

She took a deep breath and calmed her emotions. It always seemed to be a ritual with her. Take a deep breath, count to ten. If that doesn't work count to twenty. "Sorry,"

"No, its okay. I believe it too. A lot of people think Potter is just acting out but I think he just has rotten luck. I mean look what happen to his parents. He had it since he was a baby. Who knows what it will take for him to finally get some peace."

Roman nodded. She laid her head back on the table and closed her eyes.

Dalton placed a hand on her head and ran his fingers through her hair. "Ro, will you please go with me to the Hog's Head?"

"No, but you can tag along with me and Celes." She told him. "I keep telling you I have a girlfriend."

"Such a pity," he teased.

She hit his hand away from him and stood up, "You say that now, but if you aren't careful this girl might take your girl."

He frowned at her, "That isn't funny."

"It made me smile so I think it is."

"You aren't even smiling."

She shrugged and left him in the kitchen. She went back to the apartment and laid on the couch. She tried to go back to sleep but her mind wouldn't allow her to do so. With an irritated sigh she sat up and opened her book bag. she pulled out whatever homework she had and started working on it.

Hours later Roman felt Celes' panic as she came running out the room. She paused when she saw Roman on the couch working on homework. "I was worried about you." she told her.

"Sorry, I couldn't sleep so I figured I would do some homework before we got breakfast and go to Hogsmeade."

Celes sat next to her on the couch, "How are you feeling?"

Roman shrugged, "Tired." She told her. "Do you think the Hog's Head will serve real alcohol to us?"

"I highly doubt it and I don't think you should be drinking anyways."

"Yeah, you are probably right."

Celes placed a hand on her cheek and made her look at her, "I really do love you."

Tears sprang to her eyes, "Please, Cel, I don't think I can handle that right now. I feel like I'm barely hanging on by a thread. When I'm alone I just cry, I work on my experiments just to forget for a while but even that isn't really helping too much. I don't know how to handle this. I don't know what to do. I feel… so lost."

They both turned as Lee shuffled out the room. He looked at them and then sat in an armchair. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked Roman.

She nodded as she turned back to her homework. "Thank you for helping." She felt his eyes on her. She felt that he wanted to ask or say something but he didn't say anything. She hated how she was the center of attention. Any other day she wouldn't mind but right now she felt uncomfortable. She was trying hard to put up the mask she had in place for so long, but she knew it wouldn't work any more.

Tears rolled down her eyes as she sniffed and tried to do her homework. Celes wrapped her arms around her and Roman's mask crumbled. She cried as she laid her head in her lap and brought her knees to her chest. "I'm tired. I'm so tired."

Lee knelt in front of her. He placed a kiss on her cheek and smoothed her hair out her face. "Ro, we love you." he told her. "I love you, but you have got to stop this. You can't go on hating yourself."

"You don't understand, its…"

"No!" he told her firmly, "You have to pull out of this. It wasn't your fault. You had no control. Just like how you have no control when you eat too many sweets. You become this hyper, overactive, bouncing off the walls, chatter box, that needs to get up every few seconds, jump on someone, whirlwind, insane, crazy, amazing, I can't believe you can move so fast, attention grabber, pain in the ass, trouble maker…"

Roman laughed as she sniffed and wiped her eyes.

"... amazing person." he told her. "You are so full of love and new ideas that there are days we are amazed we have your attention. You make us feel so loved and warm when we are around you. Everything always seem happier when you are happy."

"You brighten up the room, babe." Celes told her. "Not just the room but our lives. With you around we feel we can do anything. You take our minds off of our problems. You are even protective of us. No one can get around you without your say or knowing."

Lee chuckled, "So why hate yourself when you do all this good for everyone else? There is no reason for that."

Roman nodded as she wiped her eyes.

Celes turned Roman's head so that she was looking up at her, "Yes, it is going to hurt for a while, but it will start to go away. You just gotta learn how to deal with it."

"And as for a monster," Lee said. "As far as I'm concern you become a monster when ever you have too many sweets and you are jumping around."

Roman laughed again as she looked at him.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, my job here is done." He stood and stretched, "I'll see you two later." he paused then looked back at both Celes and Roman then walked out.

Later that day Celes and Roman walked down to Hogsmeade. Roman held her hand not caring who saw them. She needed to hold onto Celes to keep from dwelling too much on what was inside. They walked around Hogsmeade and shopped for a while. Then they made their way to the Hog's head. Roman sat quietly as Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Celes all talked.

"So, who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?" Harry asked, wrenching open the rusty top of his Butterbeer and taking a swig.

"Just a couple of people," Hermione repeated, checking her watch and looking anxiously towards the door. "I told them to be here about now and I'm sure they all know where it is - oh, look, this might be them now."

The door of the pub had opened. A thick band of dusty sunlight split the room in two for a moment and then vanished, blocked by the incoming rush of a crowd of people.

First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Cho and one of her usually-giggling girlfriends, then, on her own and looking so dreamy she might have walked in by accident, Luna Lovegood; then Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff girl with a long plait clown her back; three Ravenclaw boys he was pretty sure were called Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and Terry Boot, Ginny, closely followed by a tall skinny blond boy with an upturned nose whom was a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and, bringing up the rear, Fred and George Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan, all three of whom were carrying large paper bags crammed with Zonko's merchandise.

"A couple of people?" said Harry hoarsely to Hermione. "A couple of people?"

"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," said Hermione happily. "Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?"

The barman had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. Possibly, he had never seen his pub so full.

"Hi," said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly, "could we have . . . twenty-five Butterbeers, please?"

The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty Butterbeers from under the bar.

"Cheers," said Fred, handing them out. "Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these . . ."

Roman watched somewhat numbly as the large chattering group took their beers from Fred and rummaged in their robes to find coins. She stood up and went to the barman and paid him in full. Fred frowned at her. "Can we please get on with this?" she told Hermione and Harry as she walked back to her seat.

The doorbell rang again and Dalton walked in. He paused at the large group of people. He scanned the group then smiled at Roman. He walked through the crowed and sat next to her as three more people came in.

Everyone's eye was upon Harry.

"Er," said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. "Well - er - hi."

The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regularly to Harry.

"Well . . . erm . . . well, you know why you're here. Erm . . . well, Harry here had the idea - I mean" Harry had thrown her a sharp look, "I had the idea - that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts - and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us -" Hermione's voice became suddenly much stronger and more confident. "because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Hear, hear," said Anthony Goldstein, and Hermione looked heartened.

"Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands." She paused, looked sideways at Harry and went on, "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells."

"You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL too, though, I bet?" said Michael Corner, who was watching her closely.

"Of course I do," said Hermione at once. "But more than that, I want to be properly trained in defence because . . . because . . ." she took a great breath

"Because Lord Voldemort is back." Celes hissed.

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Clio's friend shrieked and slopped Butterbeer down herself; Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch; Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry.

"Well . . . that's the plan, anyway," said Hermione. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to…"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said the blond Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it…" Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," said the blond boy, nodding at Harry.

"Who the hell are you?" said Roman growled.

"Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Well I think I have a right to shove my boot up your ass." she told him as she started to stand up.

"Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about."

"It's OK, Hermione," said Harry. "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he repeated, looking Zacharias straight in the face. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke. Harry had the impression that even the barman was listening. He was wiping the same glass with the filthy rag, making it steadily dirtier.

Zacharias said dismissively, "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know."

"You don't have the right to know." Celes growled as she shot out of her seat. "None of you have the right to know details on how he died. It was obvious that Voldemort used the killing curse to kill him. If you didn't know that, then you are thick as well as dumb."

Roman stood up behind her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulders.

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you," Harry said. He did not take his eyes from Zacharias Smith's aggressive face. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? Clearly its upsetting his sister. So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out." He cast an angry look in Hermione's direction.

None of them left their seats, not even Zacharias Smith, though he continued to gaze intently at Harry.

"So," said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. "So . . . like I was saying . . . if you want to learn some defence, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to…"

"Is it true," interrupted the girl with the long plait down her back, looking at Harry, "that you can produce a Patronus?"

There was a murmur of interest around the group at this.

"Yeah," said Harry slightly defensively.

"A corporeal Patronus?"

"Er - you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" he asked.

The girl smiled. "She's my auntie," she said. "I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So - is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"Blimey, Harry!" said Lee, looking deeply impressed. "I never knew that!"

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around," said Fred, grinning at Harry. "She said you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong," mumbled Harry, and a couple of people laughed.

The veiled witch sitting alone shifted very slightly in her seat. Roman's eye automatically switched her. "Lets wrap this up." Roman told them. "I no longer feel comfortable." she told Celes.

Celes nodded, "Oy! Lets get back to the subject at hand." she told the group and they quieted down.

"Yes, well," said Hermione hastily, moving on. "the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmur of general agreement.

"Right," said Hermione, looking relieved that something had at last been settled. "Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week…"

"Hang on," said Angelina, "we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice."

"No," said Cho, "nor with ours."

Celes rolled her eyes at her.

"Nor ours," added Zacharias Smith.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," said Hermione, slightly impatiently, "but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters…"

"Well said!" barked Ernie Macmillan, "Personally, I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our OWLs coming up!" He looked around impressively, as though waiting for people to cry 'Surely not!' When nobody spoke, he went on, "I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher on us at this critical period. Obviously, they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells…"

"We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defence Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione, "is that she's got some . . . some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilise us against the Ministry"

Nearly everybody looked stunned at this news; everybody except Luna Lovegood, who piped up, "Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army"

"What?" said Harry, completely thrown by this unexpected piece of information.

"Yes, he's got an army of Heliopaths," said Luna solemnly.

"No, he hasn't," snapped Hermione.

"Yes, he has," said Luna.

"What are Heliopaths?" asked Neville, looking blank.

"Dear God, we are getting off subject again. Look!" Roman yelled at everyone. "We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting. Assuming that you all are here to learn, we will contact you."

Hermione rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill, then hesitated, "I - I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think," she took a deep breath, "that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anybody else what we're up to."

Fred reached out for the parchment and cheerfully wrote his signature, but Roman noticed at once that several people looked less than happy at the prospect of putting their names on the list.

"Er . . ." said Zacharias slowly, not taking the parchment that George was trying to pass to him, "well . . . I'm sure Ernie will tell me when the meeting is."

But Ernie was looking rather hesitant about signing, too. Hermione raised her eyebrows at him. "I - well, we are prefects," Ernie burst out. "And if this list was found . . . well, I mean to say . . . you said yourself, if Umbridge finds out…"

"Put your damn name on the parchment." Roman growled. "no one is going to know about the list because I will have the list. And as everyone knows, nothing gets past me without my approval."

Nobody raised objections after Roman's outburst. When the last person - Zacharias - had signed, Roman took the parchment back and slipped it down her shirt. There was an odd feeling in the group now. It was as though they had just signed some kind of contract.

"Well, time's ticking on," said Fred briskly, getting to his feet. "George, Lee and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later." he looked at Roman and wanted to say something but changed his mind and left.

Everyone slowly cleared out. The only ones left was Harry, Hermione, Ron, Celes, Blaise, Dalton, and Roman.

"When did you come in?" Celes asked Blaised.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I was running a little late."

"Celes, Roman," Hermione said, getting their attention. "I was thinking, maybe you two can help Harry teach."

Roman's eyebrows shot up, "Teach what?" Roman asked.

"You know, help teach to defend ourselves."

"I'm in, I can also teach in the field healing. Everyone should know at least the basics and the understanding of it."

"That's great," Hermione told her.

"Wait, what the hell am I going to teach?" Roman asked.

"Well…." Hermione looked nervously around. "I heard you can change forms."

Roman looked at Celes and Celes looked at her nails as if something interesting just grew on them. "Yeah, I can."

"Well, I also heard you taught some…"

"Its too long." Roman told her. "The training is too long and not a whole lot of people are cut out for it."

"Well, we can weed out the ones that has the patience for it. Besides I've seen you in dules you are good."

"That was…"

Celes placed a hand on her arm, "Didn't we tell you that you were good?"

Roman made a face as she looked down at her hands, "Yes."

"Then you will do fine."

She groaned, "Okay. Okay, I'll do it."

"Great!" Hermione told her. "Come on lets go."

Celes and Roman followed Hermione out of the bar and found themselves drifting around the small village, Celes watched Roman out of the corner of her eye. She was terrified Roman was going to have another emotional breakdown. She held Roman's hand the whole day, she didn't care about the stairs. She felt Lee shadowing them a few times she turned around while Roman wasn't looking and gave him a look and he'd give her one back and she'd turn back around. Later in the afternoon Celes stood with Roman outside of Zonkos.

"Ro, I'm freezing. Lets go back to the castle and warm up." Celes said softly.

Roman raised an eyebrow. "How are we going to do that?" she asked stepping forward and touching Celes' face lightly with her finger.

"I can think of a few ways." Celes murmured and was about to kiss Roman when she noticed Lee watching them and pulled away. "But let me think of the ways back at the apartment." she said taking Roman's hand and leading her towards the path that led back to the school. As they started up the path Celes looked at Roman who was still very guarded.

"Your dad is bringing Lark to school for Thanksgiving next week." she said a wistful smiled coming to her face. It was clearly infections because Roman smiled too.

"He must be so big." she said.

"Oh he is, three months old. Your dad swears he's trying to crawl." Celes said with a laugh.

"Crawling at three month, really?" Roman said laughing a little as well.

They made their way back into the castle and ran the rest of the way to the apartment. This time they at least made it to Celes' room before they started touching each other.

Celes got Roman up on her bed and kissed her deeply and kissed her down the neck slowly listening to her moan as she took her nipple in her mouth and then went lower and found her core and drove her over the edge to a climax.

Then Roman got up and flipped Celes around onto her back and brought her nipples to her lips giving an evil look and she dipped down and worked Celes into a frenzy only to stop right before her orgasm and Celes moaned in frustration. Roman inched back up her body and kissed her deeply her hand trailing down Celes' body and finding her core again. Celes did the same to her and they drove each other over together and Roman collapsed on top of Celes; both girls breathing hard. Celes kissed Roman deeply again.

Roman pulled away. "You want to go again?" she asked with a laugh.

"I could if you're up for it." Celes said softly stroking Roman's hair.

"I don't know, I don't think I am." Roman said tracing little circles on Celes' breasts making them perk.

"Really, thats not what your body is saying." Celes said seductively. She trailed her hand down and cupped Roman's breast in her hand touching the nipple with her thumb causing Roman to arch her back.

"Mmm, okay. We could go again." she said; her leg going between Celes'. Roman kissed her deeply and the two began to get each other off again.

Soon they were both orgasm; both girls screaming as they did. Then they both collapsed and dozed in each others arms. Celes didn't doze for long and found that Roman had actually fallen asleep. Knowing that she needed to sleep Celes left Roman in her bed under her fleece Gryffindor throw. Roman moved restlessly for a minute. Celes shooshed her and stroked her hair and she calmed and fell back into a sleep.

Celes got out of the bed and put on some sweats and made her way out of the apartment only to find Lee waiting around the corner. She sighed and continued to walk while he followed her.

"How's she doing?" he asked coming to walk next to her.

"She's fine, she's sleeping right now." she said and kept walking like she had a purpose. She didn't of course; she was just walking.

"That's good, she needs to sleep." he said grabbing her hand.

She looked at him but didn't pull away. "Yeah I guess she does." Celes said smiling and looking down then they both heard a noise ahead, being out after curfew would get them in trouble if they got nicked by Filtch.

Lee reacted by pushing her into a dark corridor against a wall.

Celes became very aware of how very close he was to her. She was about to say something when Lee covered her mouth as Filtch walked past with his blasted cat. Celes held her breath and felt Lee's body react to their closeness. Her eyes widened as Filtch passed by.

She felt Lee's free hand playing with the elastic of her sweatpants and involuntarily her legs spread as she expected his hand to go down them. When it did she gasped into his hand and looked into his eyes. He touched her and she bucked her hips into his hand.

What was she doing? This was Lee. This was Roman's Lee. But she couldn't stop, she couldn't make him stop it felt so good. His finger entered her and she lifted her leg to make it easier as she began to move on his hand as he worked her to an orgasm. He dropped his hand over her mouth and kissed her fiercely.

Celes was thrusting into his hand now wanting so desperately to come and when she did she pushed her mouth against Lee's shoulder and screamed into it. She leaned against him for a few minutes, collecting herself and then pulled away.

Lee removed his hand from her pants and looked down at Celes in shock.

"What did we do?" Celes whispered.

"I...I…" Lee said softly seeming to be at a loss.

"We can't tell Roman about this. Oh God, Lee. We have to stop." Celes said but she found herself wanting to touch him again. "I cant do this."

"I can't seem to stop myself. I'm drawn to you." he said.

"You can't be. I can't be. I love Roman, we love Roman, Lee." Celes said and

He leaned in to try to kiss her again.

She turned her face blushing and he kissed her cheek.

"We can't do this." Lee said as if he finally got it and he stepped away. He ran his hand through his dreads and paced away. He looked angry. "Is she doing another experiment? Like I don't know, on pheromones?" he asked.

"No Lee, I think she left all that behind after last year." she said and she could tell Lee was thinking about it. Suddenly his eyes were on fire again.

Celes couldn't back away from his advancement. He came over and kissed her fiercely and she pushed him hard from her and he flew across the corridor as if he were tossed. She covered her mouth and rushed to him. "I'm sorry." she said.

He rolled over and looked at Celes in shock.

"I'm sorry are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine." Lee said. She moved away so he could get up. "I'm going back to my room."

"I'm sorry." she said and touched his chest. He took her hand and she saw his marks. "Ro can't know you have those Lee. She thinks they're gone."

"I...its harder to control them lately, whenever I'm around her or feel her...I, uh, felt you guys earlier."

Celes' eyes widened. "You felt that?" she asked shocked,

"Uh, yeah, the emotions and lust and…" he trailed off eyes on fire again.

Celes turned around and ran from him before he could do anything else. When she reached the Hippogriff statue she stopped and took a few deep breaths and then said the password. She entered the apartment went into the bathroom after she checked on Roman. She turned on the water stripped and got in. She stood under the faucets as they filled the tub with warm soupy water.

What the hell was she doing? What she and Lee just did...even oral sex with another person...she was with Roman. What the hell? Her face scrunched in anger at the whole thing. It was so annoying, she was so attracted to him she could barely control herself. It felt the same with Roman. She thought of it, her body warmed and she considered cutting her bath short and waking Roman; but decided against it. Roman needed to sleep.

She left the taps and waded around the large bath trying not to think of the hunger inside of her. It had been about an hour when she finally felt like she had in enough control to go to bed now. She got out of the tub toweled off and put on her Gryffindor sweats again and crawled into her bed next to Roman. She snuggled against her smelling her and feeling calm again she closed her eyes and was soon asleep.

Celes had a nightmare. The same one she always had lately. She is in a graveyard and she can hear Harry and Cedric talking, saying all the things that Harry said they said and then she's rounding a gravestone and she sees Peter Pettigrew and a spell with a green light is cast and there is a thump of someone falling down, she cries out cause she knows who it is but this time when she crawls forward she not only sees her brother lying dead on the ground but Harry not far off. She screams and then she jolts awake.

Roman shot up and looked at her. Celes was still breathing like she was running and looked at Roman apologetically.

"I'm sorry, nightmare... I'm sorry." she said although her I'm sorrys had a deeper meaning in her mind she knew Roman didn't know that. Roman stroked her cheek.

"You want to talk about it?" she asked.

"No, no I'm okay it was just the same old nightmare. Its okay." Celes said leaning forward and kissing her soundly. Roman kissed her back and then pulled away and looked down at her Quiddich sweats. "You got up in the middle of the night?" she asked and Celes forced herself not to blush.

"Yeah just went for a walk." she said kissing her again this time she deepened the kiss and touched Roman's breast lightly. Roman moaned and pulled away. She looked at the clock. "We can't afford to miss classes. Come on." she said getting up and sashaying away Celes fell back on her pillows and groaned. She got up a couple minutes later.

"So you ready to teach with Harry?" Roman asked as she entered the bathroom.

Celes drank her in the tub and then turned to the mirror. Her hair had grown out some and she found herself missing her long red hair today. She opened the case that held her and Roman's supply of Luscious Liquorice and took a bite suddenly her hair took on its old look, Long to her waist with bangs that fell into her eyes. She smiled and turned to Roman.

"What do you think?" she asked and Roman smiled as she floated with her arms above the pool of water and watched her.

"Blast from the past...but a good one. Its nice." Roman said she turned and waded into the water deeper. "So like I asked, you ready to teach with Harry?"

"Erm, yeah I think so. I have some ideas." Celes said she took off her sweats and walked from the bathroom naked hearing Roman say; "Thats so not fair" as she did. She smiled and pulled out a skirt but didn't bother with panties at all and pulled on a shirt without a bra. She felt like enticing Roman all day long. She threw on a Gryffindor robe over it all and sat down to put on her socks and trainers when Roman walked in almost dressed as well. She sat down next to Celes on the bed and Celes turned to her after she had her shoes on. She took Roman's hand and guided it up her thigh and whispered seductively.

"I dressed with you in mind today." she said and gave a little moaning laugh as Roman's fingers found her throbbing core. She leaned back and spread her legs and allowed Roman to work her to an orgasm. She was thrusting her hips up into Roman's hand when she came. She fell back on her bed and gave a loud scream and shook with delight. Roman stood shaking her head and offering a hand.

"You are so bad." she said.

"Mmm, I know." Celes said running her hands up Roman's skirt and making her shiver. "Would you like me to…" she trailed off as she found that Roman was also not wearing panties. She found Roman's core and quickly drove her to an orgasm, Roman was panting as Celes kissed her. She went out into the living room and waited for Roman to come in before leaning over and giving her a little show. Then she blew Roman a kiss and left the apartment. When Celes exited the apartment she found Lee outside waiting she looked back to make sure Roman wasn't behind her and then went over to him urgently.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Trying not to do something not publicly acceptable." he hissed and Celes looked down, she could see his arousal through his pants and moaned rolling her eyes and moving away from him.

"Get out of here Lee." she said and before she could say anymore she was gone. She stood there, extremely hot and bothered by the idea of Lee's arousal for what he was feeling from Roman and herself and didn't hear Roman when she finally came out of the apartment. She touched Celes' shoulder.

"You okay babe?" she asked and Celes turned to her and gave a smile.

"I'm fine sexy." she said kissing her and brushing her hands up and down Roman's body before strolling down the Great Hall for breakfast.

When she entered the Great Hall and sat down she saw that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were talking quietly. After she filled Roman's plate she turned to Harry whom she sat directly next to.

"Oy, you lot what are you talking about?" she asked. Harry turned and looked at her, he just stared for a few minutes until Celes said "What?" Harry blinked and blushed a little.

"Nothing, we are just trying to figure out where to hold meetings." he said.

"Oh…" Celes trailed off thinking for a minute. "Oh! I know a place!" she said and took a piece of parchment from in front of Ron, which required her to lean over Harry and she felt the jealousy double this time and sat back shocked.

"Celes? You have a place?" Harry asked and Celes looked back at Roman and then her eyes briefly travelled to Lee and then back to Harry.

"Erm, yeah." she said scribbling down directions on some parchment. "Its called the Room of Requirement. My uncle told me about it second year." she pushed the parchment to Harry. "You can meet me there later today and I can explain how it all works."

"Thanks Celes." Harry said and then kissed her cheek and left with Ron and Hermione in tow.

She turned back to Roman and grinned. "We have a place." she said excitedly.

"You're kind of excited about this aren't you?" Roman asked.

"Yes, very it's all very daring and off the radar and all that." Celes said and then she kissed Roman right there in the middle of the Great Hall and any heir of privacy they had had was gone with that kiss. Celes pulled away and gave a giggle.

"Well I guess we are out." Roman said softly.

"I guess we are." Celes said and her eyes met Lee's over Roman's shoulder. She turned away and took a few more bites of her food before getting up leaning over and kissing Roman deeply all the while she watched Lee's reaction then taking delight in his anger she turned and left for her morning Arthremancy class.

That evening before dinner she met Harry, Ron and Hermione where she had told them to go and they stood there looking at her.

"Okay so this room, basically when you need something you just think of it and bam a door appears and when you got to through the door its the room you need. Get it?" she asked and they nodded. "Right, well Harry this is your deal so Ron and Hermione and I will stand away from the wall and you think of it and then we can all go in together yeah?" Celes asked and they all nodded. Celes retreated away a bit followed by her cousin and Hermione. They waited and when a door appeared Celes clapped her hands in excitement and went over to the door.

Harry stepped forward and opened the door and when they entered they found themselves in a fair sized room that was clearly designed for training of some kind.

Celes grinned and hugged Harry. "Brilliant!" she said bouncing a little in his arms then pulling away and blushing. "Sorry."

"No, em, that's alright." Harry said sticking his hands in his pockets and blushing as well.

"Well I should be off." Celes said softly and left the room, Hermione caught her up.

"Here." she said handing Celes two coins.

"What are these then?" she asked.

"The number will change with Harry's and give you the time and day we are holding meetings." she said with a smile.

"That brilliant Hermione, I'll make sure Ro gets her's. Night." she said and made her way back to her apartment.

Roman sat in her work room looking at everything. She had done some notes in Celes' journal. Then she pushed it aside as her body started to heat up again. She enjoyed their time together but the last kiss she gave her seemed a little off. It seemed as if she was showing off or putting their relationship on display… She didn't mind, she herself would have done the same thing but there was always a motive when she did that sort of stuff.

She bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. She could feel Celes being aroused. Roman slowly opened her legs and allowed her robe tease between her thighs. She enjoyed the soft feel of the satin robe. She quickly stood up and shook her head. She couldn't do that here. She needed to work. SHe was nearly done with her dream charm. Of course the dream only lasted for 30 minutes. She was somewhat dissatisfied with it. Yeah it worked but she wanted to be able to go to sleep and have a peaceful night. Have peaceful dreams once again. She had tested it a few days ago and it was ready to be sold. As for the energy potion, well that was a whole different story.

Roman gasped at a sudden emotion of lust hit her. She moaned as she looked around. What was going on? she thought to herself. She quickly stood up and gathered her things. Her journal dropped to the ground and she picked it up. She paused as she looked at the new picture she drew in it. It was her and Celes in an intimate embrace. However their faces were painted to look like the paintings she seen on Day of the Dead. It was dark, morbid, but yet intimate and sexy. Celes had her arms wrapped around her and was kissing her neck. While Roman's head was tilted to the side and staring back at her with dark eyes.

She closed the notebook and slipped it inside her bag and made her way to the apartment. Once inside she looked around and didn't find Celes. She frowned as she went to her room and slipped out of her clothes and changed into jeans and a long purple shirt. She was slipping on her shoes when Celes entered the apartment. She looked a little flushed and breathless.

"Are you okay, Cel bear." Roman asked her.

Cele walked up to her and wrapped her arms around her neck and kissed her.

Roman wanted to pull away and get some answers but her body won over. She went weak at the knees as Celes pulled her tighter and kissed her down her neck. Her hands slipped up her shirt and she moaned again. Celes grinned at her and pushed her onto her bed as she crawled over her.

"I want you now."

"I just…" She trailed off as Celes' knee came in contact with her core. THe feel of her jeans made her even more excited. She trailed her hands up Celes' legs and she stopped her.

"No, this is about you." she whispered as she pinned Roman's hands above her head. She stipped her shirt off her and then her jeans. Once her mouth came in contact with her core Roman arched into her. Celes gave a growl and Roman gasped as she got closer to the edge. THe closer she got the more she started to pull away.

Celes grabbed her thighs and pulled her back and held her down. Roman bucked and moaned as she came. She panted as her body quivered and shook. SHe felt Celes crawl up her body again, kissing her all the way up until she got to her lips. Once again she brought her to climax a short time later with her fingers.

The image of Roman's drawing flashed through her head again and as she shivered. It was a little disturbing but she couldn't help but feel the power of it. She rolled to her side and wrapped her arms around Celes.

"I love you, Cel."

"I love you too." replied back and kissed her. "I showed Harry how to use the room of requirement. The space is going to be great."

Roman chuckled and shook her head. "I'm glad you are excited."

"Well aren't you excited? THis is something new and sneaky. Its like we are flipping the man off."

Roman laughed, "Flipping the man off. I like that. BUt I'm always doing something new and sneaky." She laughed again, "Flipping the man off… its more like flipping the woman off."

Celes laughed, "Come on, lets go eat. We have to prepare ourselves for what's going to happen."

Roman frowned as she sat up, "WHat going to happen?"

"Just wait until you find out. All I'm going to say is that I found your roses and feathers." Celes teased as she slipped out of the bed.

"Wait, what?... oh! Hey! Where did you get the feathers?"

"I asked Lee."

"I wanted to pluck his feathers." She complained. "He would have made a nice squawking sound."

Celes shook her head and then kissed her. "And you say I'm bad."

Roman laughed as she dressed. They made their way downstairs for supper and sat next to each other. Lee glanced down at them and Roman smiled. She got up and went over to him. "Thank you for the feathers." She whispered. "I just wish I could have seen you again as a peacock. You really are magnificent."

He nodded at her then leaned in and kissed her.

Roman pulled back, "Hey, I have a girlfriend."

"I know, and I have a boyfriend. I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

SHe frowned at him, "For what? I was the one that…"

"I was being mean to you at the end. I should have… kept my distance."

"I… do love you, Lee. And if this guy makes you happy like how Celes makes me happy then I'm happy for you. I learned my lesson and I will not play or create anything the will play with people's emotions. It was wrong."

Lee reached out and hugged her. "I love you too."

SHe smiled at him and sat next to Celes.

"What was that about?"

"I was thanking him for the feathers and telling him I was sorry for last year. I think we are now on good terms." Roman smiled. She looked at Celes and kissed her on the cheek. "I also told him if he is happy with his boyfriend the way that you make me happy, then I'm happy for him."

Celes smiled and kissed her, "I love you too."

Roman gave her a devilish smile, "So, can I have a plate full of sweets instead."

"No, now eat." She told her.

Roman laughed. She was actually feeling happy. In that moment she didn't think about what was bothering her or any of her problems. She was happy and she truly felt it."

A couple of weeks had gone by and it was finally time for their first instruction with Harry. Everyone that was on the list made it. Roman made sure to check. She looked over at Celes and she bounced excitedly. When she caught her eyes she smiled. They all had agreed on a name and Harry gained everyone's attention.

"Right," said Harry "shall we get practising then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful…"

"Oh, please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"Oh shut it." Roman told him. "I have used it many of times against wimps like you."

"'I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life in June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

"Ok," said Harry, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practise. Roman, Celes and I will go around the room helping."

"Why do they get to help?" Zacharias Smith asked indignantly.

Roman smiled, "Because advance magic looks like this." She made everyone back up and she changed into her full grown snow leopard form.

Everyone around gasped as a few girls shrieked.

Celes walked up to her and scratched behind her hear.

"Hey, wasn't that the same leopard that ran the halls third year?" Someone asked.

"Oh, look, its Roree." Fred and George said in unision.

"Yes. We are hoping to get some of you if not most of you to this stage." Celes told them. "Roman will be teaching you to change. Whereas, I will teach you the basic in field medicine.

Roman changed back and shivered. She leaned over and kissed Celes.

Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Predictably, Neville was left partnerless.

"You can practise with me," Harry told him. "Right - on the count of three, then - one, two, three…"

The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air. Harry was too quick for Neville, whose wand went spinning out of his hand, hit the ceiling in a shower of sparks and landed with a clatter on top of a bookshelf, from which Harry retrieved it with a Summoning Charm. There was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in Disarming their opponents at all, but merely causing them to jump backwards a few paces or wince as their feeble spell whooshed over them.

"Oh, shit." Roman said as she dropped to the ground as a spell with whizzing by. "And Zacharias Smith thought this was going to be a waste of time." she muttered. "Stop, stop, stop." She told everyone. They all looked at her. She summoned some armor that would bounced the spells off her. "Okay, now that I'm ready, continued."

"Hey Ro, can you help me over here?" Dalton asked.

Roman rolled her eyes and walked over, "Yes, Mr. Gray."

"I'm not quite sure if I'm getting this. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"Before I help you, is this a ligament cry for help or is it your ploy to get me here?"

"No, he actually bloody sucks." Blaise told him. "I disarmed him at least ten times."

Dalton blushed slightly as he kept his eyes away from Roman.

She nodded as she felt it was true. "Well, show me how you are doing it and I'll correct you." She told him.

"Expelliarmus!" Dalton said and the spell went flying passed Blaise and hit a wall."

"You are flourishing your wand too much. You don't need to move your arm but your wrist. Like so," She looked at Blaise and they nodded with they were ready.

"Expelliarmus!" Blaise said.

She flicked her wrist. Blaise's wand went flying out of his hand.

"You didn't even say anything!" Dalton and Blaise said in unision.

"Of course not."

"I haven't even mastered that and I was learning that last year."

Roman smiled up at him, "That is because I'm better," She looked over at Blaise, "At everything." WIth that said she walked away and left a blushing Blaise standing there.

"Expelliarmus!" said Neville, and Harry, caught unawares, tell his wand fly out of his hand.

"I DID IT!" said Neville gleefully. "I've never done it before - I DID IT!"

"Good one!" said Harry encouragingly, deciding not to point out that in a real duel Neville's opponent was unlikely to be starring in the opposite direction with his wand held loosely at his side. "Listen, Neville, can you take it in turns to practise with Ron and Hermione for a couple of minutes so I can walk around and see how the rest are doing?"

Harry moved off into the middle of the room. Something very odd was happening to Zacharias Smith. Every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony Goldstein, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back.

"Sorry Harry," said George hastily, when Harry caught his eye. "Couldn't resist."

Roman and Celes walked around the other pairs, trying to correct those who were doing the spell wrong. However every time they passed each other Celes would brush up against her. Roman would give little gasps and eye Celes as she walked away with a smile.

Ginny was teamed with Michael Corner; she was doing very well, whereas Michael was either very bad or unwilling to jinx her. Ernie Macmillan was flourishing his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them; Luna Lovegood was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Justin Finch-Fletchleys wand spinning out of his hand, at other times merely causing his hair to stand on end.

"OK, stop!" Harry shouted. "Stop. STOP!" he blew hard on a whistle . Everyone lowered their wands. "That wasn't bad," said Harry, "but there's definite room for improvement." Zacharias Smith glared at him. "Let's try again."

Harry, Celes, and Roman continued to move off around the room again, stopping here and there to make suggestions. Slowly, the general performance improved.

"Oh no," said Cho rather wildly as harry approached. "Expelliarmious! I mean, Expellimellius! I - oh, sorry, Marietta!"

Celes looked over to Cho and her friend then rolled her eyes.

Her curly-haired friend's sleeve had caught fire; Marietta extinguished it with her own wand and glared at Harry as though it was his fault.

Roman chuckled to herself.

"You made me nervous, I was doing all right before then!" Cho told Harry ruefully.

"That was quite good," Harry lied, but when she raised her eyebrows he said, "Well, no, it was lousy, but I know you can do it properly, I was watching from over there."

She laughed. Her friend Marietta looked at them rather sourly and turned away.

"Don't mind her," Cho told him. "She doesn't really want to be here but I made her come with me. Her parents have forbidden her to do anything that might upset Umbridge. You see - her mum works for the Ministry."

"What about your parents?' asked Harry.

"Well, they've forbidden me to get on the wrong side of Umbridge, too," said Cho, drawing herself up proudly. "But if they think I'm not going to fight You-Know-Who after what happened to Cedric…" She broke off, looking rather confused, and an awkward silence fell between them; Terry Boot's wand went whizzing past Harry's ear and hit Alicia Spinnet hard on the nose.

Celes stood next to Roman listening to Cho. She frowned at the girl. "I still don't understand what my brother saw in her." she muttered under her breath so that only Roman could hear.

Roman shrugged, "Maybe a nice body?" she whispered back.

Celes frowned at her, "That wasn't funny."

"I know but I love to feel your jealousy directed at me." She teased. "Besides you have been teasing me all night." Roman pouted. "I hope you plan on taking care of me."

"Of course I am," She smiled up at her and then kissed her.

"Good, cause I want to snuggle tonight too."

Her eyes softened, "Okay."

Harry blew his whistle; everybody stopped shouting 'Expelliarmus' and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.

"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.

Angelina, however, said quickly, "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going." Everyone slowly cleared out.

Roman and Celes walked hand in hand to their apartment. After they made love they laid in each other's arms caressing each other still.

"Tonight was fun." Celes told her.

"Mmm, nights are always fun with you… wait you meant the DA meeting." Roman smiled.

Celes smiled, "Yes, I meant the DA meeting, but I like my nights with you more."

"Good, then I won't be too jealous."

"Is that so?"

"Yes,"

"Hopefully when they are advanced enough we can start weeding out the ones that learn quickly and have them train with you."

Roman gave her a teasing smile, "I wouldn't mind having some of them pet me."

"They better not pet you. I'm the only one that can pet you." Celes cupped her breast and Roman moaned.

"I like when you pet me the most."

"Then I shall pet you again." Celes trailed her down further until she reached Roman's core and started to get her off again.

Roman screamed out as she reached her climax and then turned on Celes. After she was done with Celes, Celes fell asleep. Roman stayed awake watching her. There were some nights she just enjoyed watching her sleep and and enjoyed holding her. Just doing that gave her enough peace to fall asleep herself.

A few weeks had passed and everything was going well with the DA meetings. There were some students that seemed to advance faster than others and some that just needed a little more work. Soon Roman had her group of kids to teach. Within the Room of Requirement she had a room for them. She had explained that from then on they would have to meditate and find a calming peace within them. She used her power to keep them calm and as expected there were a few kids that had fallen asleep.

It was now the day of Thanksgiving and Roman found herself making her way to Umbridge's office. She was summoned there that afternoon. For what, she had no clue. As she started to climb the stairs to her office Snape came down.

"Hello, Professor." she greeted.

"Hello, McTaggert." He paused. "Answer her question carefully." He told her then left.

Roman frowned as he left then climbed the rest of the stairs to Umbrigd's office. She knocked on the door and a sweet voice granted permission to enter.

"Oh, God, its still the same." She muttered to herself.

"Good afternoon, my dear." She told her.

"Good afternoon."

"Please have a seat, would you like some tea?"

"No, thank you. I don't really like tea."

"Oh, but its my special blend of tea. It is really tasty."

Roman eyed her suspiciously as she took the tea. Umbridge had a suspicious vibe to her. She took a drink and set it down.

"Are you relaxed?" she asked.

Roman when to say no but ended up telling the truth. "No." she frowned as she bit her lower lip.

"Why so?"

"Because you make me nervous and I have a lot of shit on my mind that keeps me from relaxing."

"What kind of things are on your mind?"

Roman clicked her tongue as she realized Psycho Pink Lady put a truth serum in the tea. Roman laughed, "Oh, let's see, what is on my mind right now. Right now I am thinking you are a psychotic pink lady. I mean really, who wears nothing but pink, paints her walls pink, even your door is pink. The tea and sugar are also pink. Pink is just too much! You need color and not more pink! Then you have filthy cats on the walls. Disgusting!"

Umbridge turned pink with anger. "I want you to tell me about Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter? Well, lets see, his parents were killed by the moldy guy, he lives with his aunt and uncle and cousin, he come here to Hogwarts, he has a crush on Celes, whom is my girlfriend. I don't really like him at this moment because of that. Uh, his friend is Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger…"

"No, tell me what he is planning?"

Roman paused as she thought about her answer. Should she answer or change the subject. "You know, you are really, really, really short." Roman told her.

Umbridge turned red with more anger, "Tell me what Harry Potter is planning!" she yelled.

"And you are mean too. But not just mean, you are ugly. Mean and ugly don't go together."

"GET OUT!" she yelled.

"I would be more than happy to do so." Roman picked up her bag and tuned back to her, "You do realize I call you Psycho Pink Lady because you are crazy." she said and walked down to Celes. "We have a problem."

"What is the problem?"

"Psycho Pink Lady has put the truth serum in my tea and tried to interrogate me about Harry Potter. She wants to know what he is planning."

Celes gasped, "What did you say?"

"I said she wears too much pink and she is psycho… and she is mean… and ugly."

Celes gave a giggle, "Wow, uh, she didn't give you detention?"

"I don't know… she yelled at me to get out of her office."

Lee came up next to them, "What's going on?" he asked.

"Hey sexy!" Roman smiled, "I was just telling my lover here that we have a problem. Psycho…"

"Umbridge gave her a truth serum." Celes said cutting Roman off.

"Hey! That was rude." Roman frowned.

"I know and I'm sorry but we need to find Harry."

"No, we need to get ready to go see my dad and the baby."

"You guys are going to see them today?" Lee asked a little hurt.

"Awe, sweetie, why are you hurt?" Roman asked Lee.

"Uh, no reason."

Roman wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek. "You are hurt. Let me make it feel better."

"Hey!" Celes said as she pulled Roman off Lee.

"I wasn't going to do anything to him." Roman told her. "Just make him feel happy with my powers. But there would be many things I would like to do to him and to you." she told Celes in a seductive voice as she kissed her. "Hey, when does this stuff wear off?" she asked Celes.

"I… I don't know. It would depend on how much you have taken, I guess."

"Humm… I think I need to find Blaise and tell him what I really think of him."

"Oh, no. Come on, we need to go get ready for Thanksgiving." Celes said as she pulled her towards their apartment.

"Does this mean more sex in the bath?" Roman asked as she hugged her and let her hands slide to her breast. She heard Cele's gasp and felt her lust. She smiled, "I think that is a yes." she frowned, "You know I love you right? I mean I really, really love you. I want us to always be together. I think we make a very good couple."

Celes smiled shooting Lee an uncomfortable look, "I love you too."

It was nearly suppertime when they made their way to the Three Broomsticks. Roman and Celes had spent a little too much time playing with each other. So by the time they finally left the apartment Blaise was pacing the entry of the Castle. Celes had invited Blaise so he could see the baby and Roman had opt out of inviting someone.

Roman smiled as she entered her Father's room. "We are here." She told him. The truth serum and finally ran its course so she wasn't about to spill her guts to her father.

Celes stepped forward to the bassinet that Lark was sleeping in and summoned Blaise to stand beside her. The baby was sleeping, and when she looked over at Blaise he had tears in his eyes.

"He so beautiful. We made that." he said reaching out he touched Lark's soft cheek and pulled back quickly when the baby stirred.

"Its okay Blaise." Celes said, she didn't have the heart to wake him up so she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead and turned to Alan.

"He's gotten so big." she said her eyes misty.

"Yes he has." Alan said affection coating his voice.

On impulse Celes stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Alan's middle in a hug. He hugged her back and gave a soft chuckle, his eyes turned to Blaise.

"I see you've decided to do the right thing by Lark." he said a little coldly as Celes pulled away.

"Yes sir, it took way too many dumb decisions to get here but yes sir." he said looking back down at the baby. Roman scoffed and Celes gave her a look. Soon they were all sitting to eat. About half way through the meal Alaric let out a wail and Alan went to get up but Celes looked at him.

"Let me." she said and went over to him. She lifted him into her arms and rocked him. He was so precious and he smelled so good. She loved her little boy so much and still couldn't believe that she had him. She began to hum a soft tune to him and he calmed instantly at her voice. Thrilled at the reaction her son gave she began to sing to him.

" _Flower gleam and glow,_

 _let your powers shine,_

 _make the clock reverse,_

 _bring back what once was mine._

 _Heal what has been hurt,_

 _Change the fates design,_

 _save what has been lost,_

 _bring back what once was mine._

 _What once was mine."_

She finished the song and Alaric was asleep again she kissed him on the forehead and put him back down. When she turned everyone was looking at her. Roman had tears in her eyes and Blaise looked like he could cry as well. Alan had such a tender and fatherly look on his face. She smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"I uh...when we were young, Lucius used to sing that to Draco and I to get us to sleep." she said as if that explained everything. At the mention of Draco's name though Blaise became a little guilty looking and Roman's eyes darkened.

"Lucius Malfoy can sing? I would not have pegged him as a singer." Alan said as Celes went and sat back down at the table.

"Yes he can, not that he's practicing too much these days." Celes said darkly stabbing a piece of her turkey a little aggressively.

"What's that suppose to mean Celes?" Blaise asked.

Roman gave Blaise an irritated look. "Blaise, your mother is this crazy death eater lady and you don't know that Lucius Malfoy is one of the inner circle?" she snapped.

"Yeah...I knew that." Blaise said looking down at his plate.

"No need to be rude, Roman." Alan pointed out looking at Roman.

"Sorry." Roman said and pouted. Celes rubbed her thigh and smiled her thanks.

They continued to eat having light conversation and then it was time to go. Blaise, Celes and Roman went over to Alaric and looked down at him. Celes' eyes filled with tears as she saw an expression that reminded her of her brother cross the sleeping baby's face.

"Not enough time." she whispered and Roman rubbed her back.

"You will get to see him at christmas again Celes." Alan said from behind them.

"I know." she sniffed and leaned down and kissed her son. Blaise did the same whispering a "Daddy loves you' to him and then Roman touched the little boys cheek.

"Catch you later Lark the Shark." she kissed his nose and the three of them left.

After that the weeks seemed to slow down as Celes and Roman hit a peak in their relationship. They made love four or five times a day and wherever they could find a place to. Celes managed to avoid Lee for the most part except once after she and Roman had had sex in their favorite broom cupboard he was waiting in the shadows for Roman to leave and when she did he had seized Celes and pushed her against the wall in a kiss that made her breathless. She was already tired from what she and Roman just did but it didn't take much for her to be turned on again. She snaked her hand down his trousers and helped him find relief and then pulled away blushing and feeling guilty again. She left before he could say anything she had gone back to the apartment that day and skipped her afternoon classes that day. When Roman had come to ask where she had been she just said she had been overly tired and needed a nap. She hated lying to Roman but when it came to Lee it seemed to come almost naturally. She hated Lee so much, she wanted whatever was going on between the two of them to stop.

At the last meeting of the DA before holiday everyone seemed to be progressing well. Celes stood at the front of the room with Harry, she and Harry were the only ones who could summon a Corperal Patronus. Harry demonstrated and a beautiful shimmering stag galloped around the room. Then he turned to Celes with a smile.

"Show them yours." he said and she smiled at him blushing slightly.

She casted hers and a beautiful shimmering leopard shot from her wand and slunk around the room. She beamed as Cho looked on jealousy because she shared something with Harry Potter that Cho herself did not. She looked at Roman who looked by her Patronus and winked.

"Alright you lot, practice. And split off, I heard last meet that some of you in Roman's class nearly changed into animal forms." she looked at Harry who had joined Roman's classes when Hermione took over teaching the less difficult spells.

After the last person left Celes' partitioned area for healing teaching Celes began to clean up the area. She didn't notice that she was alone, Roman had told her she was going to head back to their apartment to pack. Celes hummed as she cleaned and when she finished she went to leave the area and then fell back when she saw Harry and Cho standing in front of the cork board with the pictures of people all over it and DA business notices.

"I was wondering," Cho said turning to Harry eyes glistening with tears that made Celes want to make gagging noises. "If he was brave in the end."

Harry nodded and turned to her. "He was the bravest, braver than I was." Harry said barely loud enough for Celes to hear. Celes felt her throat constrict in unshed tears.

Then a sprig of mistletoe sprouted above them and Celes saw it coming before she watched as Harry muttered something a Nargles and then they kissed and Celes whipped back around to the other side of the partition and took deep breaths as tears spilled down her cheeks. She waited for them to leave and when they were gone she made her way out into the hallway and blindly started for her apartment. She wasn't even halfway there when Lee showed up out of nowhere.

"Not now Lee." she cried and he stepped forward and took her arm.

"Celes what's wrong?" he asked concerned.

"Nothing Lee I'm fine." she said trying to pull her arm away. She didn't manage it and screamed at him and violently hit him in the chest with her free hand. She then proceeded to hit his chest as he looped his arms around her she kept struggling and yelling at him incoherently and finally she screamed one last time and collapsed into tears. Lee kissed her cheeks and forehead and mouth as he shooshed her and then he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to her apartment.

Roman waited outside the door she clearly knew they were coming, Celes still cried loudly and Lee carried her inside and put her down on the couch. She shifted to clinging to Roman as she cried. Every single hurt and pain she had felt when her brother felt so fresh right then.

"It hurts, please…" she begged Roman and Lee, Lee looked at Roman helplessly as he rubbed her back Roman tried to calm her with her abilities with little success. "Why'd he have to go and die? Why couldn't I have just made him not?" she moaned she didn't feel like she was going to ever stop crying.

"Celes, honey you couldn't have made Cedric stop." she whispered and Celes looked up at her with wild eyes.

"How do you know, he listened to me. I could have said something. I could have been more insistent. Oh dear Merlin...I'm the reason he's dead. He's dead because I didn't try hard enough." Celes said eyes widening and she cried that much harder.

"You are not the reason he is dead. Voldemort is." Lee said and Celes looked at him in sudden shock. Her tears temporarily paused.

"You...said his name Lee." Celes said.

"No point in not." he said and Celes smiled a little before she started to cry again.

"He still gone." she said looking back at Roman and Roman stroked her hair and gave her a sad smile.

"I know baby, I'm so sorry. I wish i could make this pain go away." she said, and suddenly all Celes could think about was kissing her. So she did, still crying she did desperately right in front of Lee. She didnt care. She pushed her hands up under Roman's shirt and tried to touch her breasts only to find that Roman was pushing her out of the shirt.

"Celes, stop." she said almost coldly. Celes paused and then blushed and her lip trembled again as she looked at an uncomfortable Lee and Roman.

"I'm sorry." she sniffed and still crying she got up from the couch Lee and Roman rising with her. She went to take a step only to find that she couldn't walk straight and she stumbled and Lee caught her around the waist. She looked up at him as Roman came over and brushed back her hair from her face.

"Dont apologize you're hurting." she said softly and looked at Lee. "I'm going to take her into the bathroom.

"Need help?" he asked and in the back of Celes' mind she knew there was more to that phrase but Roman didn't seem to hear it and just shook her head.

"No stay out here though cause I may need you to help me put her to bed." Roman said taking a still crying Celes' weight from Lee and leading her into the bathroom. There she undressed Celes turned on the taps and helped Celes to sit down on the bench in the tub. Celes sat there crying as Roman undressed and then joined her.

Celes hugged her and took comfort in her skin against her own. She pulled back and kissed Roman softly still crying. "I didn't mean to...in front of Lee...I just...this hole where Cedric used to be...he's gone Roman. He left me, he promised me he never would. I hate him so much." she said and Roman shook her head and placed her hands on either side of her face.

"You do not hate him, you miss him." she said and Celes nodded.

She finally felt the exhaustion of all her crying and closed her eyes leaning against Roman.

Roman helped her get out of the tub and walked her into her room where she helped Celes put on a large t-shirt that Celes had of Roman's and then helped her into her bed. She then put on her own t-shirt went to the door and called out for Lee to come into the room and then crawled into the bed next to her. Lee sat down in the huge chair in Celes' room and watched as Celes finally fell asleep.

Celes awoke suddenly hours later to find Roman asleep next to her. She smiled down at her and kissed her, thankful for her. She looked up when she remembered Lee was there and saw that he was awake. She slipped out of her bed and went out into the living room. Lee followed her quietly closing her door silently and going to Celes. He pulled her into a hug pulling the shirt she wore up a little. Celes pulled back and looked up at him grateful for him. She rested a hand on his cheek and then reached up and kissed him. It was the first time she had initiated any action between them. He kissed her back his hand going in between her legs. She wanted this but Roman was in the next room and she wasn't suppose to want it. Something was thrilling about the fact that Lee was touching her in this way and Roman was just feet away. She allowed him to touch her core while she shoved her hand down his pants and took him in her hand. As they continued to kiss they drove each other over the edge and Celes suddenly felt a new pressure as she came and felt herself come all over her legs. She was shaking and so was Lee. She pulled away and tears pricked her eyes. What was she doing with Lee. She pulled away and Lee straightened all his cloths. How did this come out of what happened earlier. Lee should have been Roman. Celes hated herself. She pushed Lee out of the apartment and went into the bathroom. She cleaned up and sat down and started to cry again. She wasnt crying just for her loss, she was crying from guilt. She needed to tell Roman and got up finally and went to the door of her room, she was shaking like a leaf when she crawled into the bed and woke Roman up. Roman looked sleepily up at her.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked touching Celes' cheek tenderly.

"I...have to tell you something…" Celes said softly tears still flowing from her eyes.

"Oh baby, you don't have to tell me anything." Roman said sitting up and kissing Celes deeply.

Celes kissed her back her passion ignited once again she pushed Roman back ready to give her all kinds of pleasure but Roman shook her head and pushed Celes down onto her back. Celes looked at Roman as she hovered over her trailing her hand down to Celes core. She worked her fingers into Celes and slowly pumped in and out as Celes girated against her hand. With her free hand she pushed up the shirt Celes was wearing and took one of Celes' nipples in her mouth. Celes arched her back as Roman teased her nipple and Celes continued to gyrate against her hand. She trailed her hands down Roman's body and found her core as well and they drove each other to orgasm Celes having one of her new kind of orgasms erupted liquid from her lady parts causing Roman to look at her in shock. The two of them shaking from their sex still. Celes kissed Roman as she fell down next to her.

"You wanted to tell me something?" Roman asked after a minute look pleased and relaxed and Celes realized in that moment she didn't want to tell Roman anything about her and Lee.

"Just that, what we just did I wanted to tell you that I wanted you." Celes said softly moving to snuggle closer to Roman.

"What was that whole thing when you came?" Roman asked playing with her hair.

"I have no idea, but the orgasm linked to it was amazing." Celes said holding up her hand. "Look I'm still shaking."

Roman laced her hand with Celes' and looked down at her. "You feel better?" she asked

"A little yeah." Celes whispered, what she really felt was guilty. How could she do this to Roman in less than an hour she had had oral sex with Lee and full on lady sex with Roman. She was a horrible person. Roman must have felt her guilt but she misread it because she said;

"Its not your fault he's dead Celes, you couldn't dictate his choices that led him to that fate anymore than anyone else." Roman said stroking her hair.

Celes nodded and bit her lip so she wouldn't cry again. She lay there as Roman stroked her hair and waited for Roman to finally nod off. When she did Celes pulled away from her covered her with a blanket and went out to the couch she pulled the throw up around her and pulling her knees to her chest she cried.

After what Blaise did to her how could she do the very same thing to Roman? And with Lee. What the hell was she doing? Why couldn't she control herself when he was around her. It was like she was a different person when she was with him. She hated it, she hated how it felt. She had to figure out what the hell was going on. Finally she lay down on the couch and drifted into a fitful sleep.

Celes was awoken not even an hour later but someone banging on the statue outside her apartment. She got up the blanket wrapped around her she went and opened the door and found Severus there she blinked up at him.

"Your uncle has been attacked and you need to go Dumbledore's office." Severus said as Roman came out of Celes' room.

"Whasthematter?" she mumbled rubbing her eyes, Celes turned to her eyes filled with worry.

"Uncle Arthur...he was attacked." Celes said a tremor of terror in her voice. Roman nodded and then looked at Severus. "Ill get her to the Dumbledores office." Severus nodded gave one last look to Celes and then left them.

The next few hours went by in a blur and before Celes knew it she was standing in the Burrow with Roman at her side holding her hand. She and her cousins weren't aloud to go to St Mungos just yet. After the initial shock of it Celes had wanted to go right away to oversee her uncles care but Molly had told her she best not because she knew her niece would just terrorize the healers. She had dropped it after that because she knew Molly was right. Celes went into her room at the Burrow which was the old den and looked at her room. Molly kept it clean although she hadn't slept in it for than a week at a time in almost two years. She sighed heavily and sat down on the bed. Tomorrow they would go to the hospital for Christmas.

"You okay?" Roman asked from the doorway, Celes offered her hand and Roman came into the room taking it. Celes pulled her down on top of her and kissed her.

"Better that you're here with me." she said softly and Roman laughed getting up looking at the door nervously.

"Okay good." she said touching Celes' cheek. Celes could see fire in her eyes but knew she was resisting out of respect. Celes loved her for that and had a sudden feeling of guilt wash over her.

Roman looked at her curiously and Celes controlled her feelings quickly and gave a smile as she she stood.

"Well no hospital until tomorrow what do we want to do?" she asked looking around her small room and then her eyes lingered on the bed.

"I want to do that Celes, believe me I do." Roman said reading her thoughts. "But we are in the Weasley house and I don't really feel like thats such a good idea."

Celes sighed and closed the door pushing Roman against it and kissing her. She snaked her hands down her pants and Roman tore away skipping off to the other side of the tiny room. Celes turned and gave a smile. "Come here you minx." she said going across the room and grabbing her hips and kissing her. Roman pulled away enough to look at Celes and brushed back her hair off her shoulder.

"Your hair is getting long again." Roman said huskily.

"Yes, it is. Are we going to talk about my hair now?" Celes asked reaching around and cupping Roman's buttox and giving it a squeeze.

Roman squealed and pushed Celes away playfully and skipped back to the other side of the room with a laugh. "I think I'd like you to have to work for it." Roman said giving a sly smile.

"Oh really?" Celes said going over and rubbing against her, Roman shuddered in delight but pulled away again moving to stand in the middle of Celes' bed. She slowly almost too slowly removed her shirt revealing her lack of bra and Celes groaned getting up on the bed and taking her down they landed on the bed in a fit of giggles and then made sweet love to one another until someone knocked on the door and told them it was time to eat.

They followed her through the double doors and along the narrow corridor beyond, which was lined with more portraits of famous Healers and lit by crystal bubbles full of candles that floated up on the ceiling, looking like giant soapsuds. More witches and wizards in lime-green robes walked in and out of the doors they passed; a foul-smelling yellow gas wafted into the passageway as they passed one door, and every now and then they heard distant wailing. They climbed a flight of stairs and entered the Creature-Induced Injuries corridor, where the second door on the right bore the words: 'Dangerous' Dai Llewellyn Ward: Serious Bites. Underneath this was a card in a brass holder on which had been handwritten: Healer-in-Charge: Hippocrates Smethwyck. Trainee Healer: Augustus Pye.

Roman, Celes, and the whole lot of the Weasley all arrived at the strange hospital. Roman was in awe at all the things she saw and giggled a couple of times which she turned into coughs when Molly and Celes looked at her. It took them a while to find out where Mr. Weasley was held but they finally found out.

"We'll wait outside, Molly," Tonks said. "Arthur won't want too many visitors at once . . . it ought to be just the family first."

Mad-Eye growled his approval of this idea and set himself with his back against the corridor wall, his magical eye spinning in all directions. Harry drew back, too, but Mrs Weasley reached out a hand and pushed him through the door, saying, "Don't be silly, Harry, Arthur wants to thank you."

The ward was small and rather dingy, as the only window was narrow and set high in the wall facing the door. Most of the light came from more shining crystal bubbles clustered in the middle of the ceiling. The walls were of panelled oak and there was a portrait of a rather vicious-looking wizard on the wall, captioned: Urquhart Rackharrow, 1612-1697, Inventor of the Entrail-expelling Curse.

There were only three patients. Mr. Weasley was occupying the bed at the far end of the ward beside the tiny window.

Celes was pleased and relieved to see that he was propped up on several pillows and reading the Daily Prophet by the solitary ray of sunlight falling on to his bed. He looked up as they walked towards him and, seeing who it was, beamed.

"Hello!" he called, throwing the Prophet aside. "Bill just left, Molly, had to get back to work, but he says he'll drop in on you later."

"How are you, Arthur?" asked Mrs Weasley, bending down to kiss his cheek and looking anxiously into his face. "You're still looking a bit peaky."

"I feel absolutely fine," said Mr Weasley brightly, holding out his good arm to give Roman a hug. "If they could only take the bandages off, I'd be fit to go home."

"Why can't they take them off, Papa Weasley?" asked Roman.

"Well, I start bleeding like mad every time they try," said Mr Weasley cheerfully, reaching across for his wand, which lay on his bedside cabinet, and waving it so that six extra chairs appeared at his bedside to seat them all. "It seems there was some rather unusual kind of poison in that snakes fangs that keeps wounds open. They're sure they'll find an antidote, though; they say they've had much worse cases than mine, and in the meantime I just have to keep taking a Blood-Replenishing Potion every hour. But that fellow over there," he said, dropping his voice and nodding towards the bed opposite in which a man lay looking green and sickly and staring at the ceiling. "Bitten by a werewolf, poor chap. No cure at all."

"A werewolf?" whispered Mrs. Weasley, looking alarmed. "Is he safe in a public ward? Shouldn't he be in a private room?"

"It's two weeks till full moon," Mr Weasley reminded her quietly. They've been talking to him this morning, the Healers, you know, trying to persuade him he'll be able to lead an almost normal life. I said to him - didn't mention names, of course - but I said I knew a werewolf personally, very nice man, who finds the condition quite easy to manage."

"What did he say?" asked George.

"Said he'd give me another bite if I didn't shut up," said Mr. Weasley sadly.

Roman started to laugh then coughed to cover it up when Mama Weasley gave her that motherly look that said it wasn't funny. "Sorry." she muttered.

"And that woman over there," Mr. Weasley indicated the only other occupied bed, which was right beside the door, "won't tell the Healers what bit her, which makes us all think it must have been something she was handling illegally. Whatever it was took a real chunk out of her leg, very nasty smell when they take off the dressings."

"So, you going to tell us what happened, Dad?" asked Fred, pulling his chair closer to the bed.

"Well, you already know, don't you?" said Mr Weasley, with a significant smile at Harry. "It's very simple - I'd had a very long day, dozed off, got sneaked up on and bitten."

"Is it in the Prophet, you being attacked?" asked Fred, indicating the newspaper Mr Weasley had cast aside.

"No, of course not," said Mr Weasley, with a slightly bitter smile, "the Ministry wouldn't want everyone to know a dirty great serpent got..."

"Arthur!" Mrs Weasley warned him.

"- got - er - me," Mr Weasley said hastily, though Harry was quite sure that was not what he had meant to say. Celes snorted at that and then cleared her throat to cover it when she saw Molly shoot her a glare.

"So where were you when it happened, Dad?" asked George.

"That's my business," said Mr Weasley, though with a small smile. He snatched up the Daily Prophet, shook it open again and said, "I was just reading about Willy Widdershins's arrest when you arrived. You know Willy turned out to be behind those regurgitating toilets back in the summer? One of his jinxes backfired, the toilet exploded and they found him lying unconscious in the wreckage covered from head to foot in - "

"When you say you were 'on duty'," Fred interrupted in a low voice, "what were you doing?"

"You heard your father," whispered Mrs. Weasley, "we are not discussing this here! Go on about Willy Widdershins, Arthur."

"Well, don't ask me how, but he actually got off the toilet charge," said Mr Weasley grimly. "I can only suppose gold changed hands - "

"You were guarding it, weren't you?" said George quietly. "The weapon? The thing You-Know-Who's after?" Celes perked up at that, she hadn't heard anything about a weapon and looked at Roman for help but she only shrugged.

"George, be quiet!" snapped Mrs Weasley.

"Anyway," said Mr. Weasley, in a raised voice, "this time Willys been caught selling biting doorknobs to Muggles and I don't think he'll be able to worm his way out of it because, according to this article, two Muggles have lost fingers and are now in St Mungo's for emergency bone re-growth and memory modification. Just think of it, Muggles in St Mungo's! I wonder which ward they're in?" Roman wrinkled her nose and tried not to laugh at Papa Weasley as he looked eagerly around as though hoping to see a signpost.

"Didn't you say You-Know-Who's has a snake, Harry?" asked Fred, looking at his father for a reaction. "A massive one? You saw it the night he returned, didn't you?" Celes flinched at the mention of that night.

"That's enough," said Mrs Weasley crossly. "Mad-Eye and Tonks are outside, Arthur, they want to come and see you. And you lot can wait outside," she added to her children, Roman, Celes, and Harry. "You can come and say goodbye afterwards. Go on."

When they all exited the ward most of the group went off and did their own thing together, Celes and Roman hung back and Roman took Celes' hand as they walked through the hospital.

"So with a lot of study you'll work here one day, huh?" Roman asked.

"That's the hope." Celes said smiling at her. She turned to her. "I'm so very glad you are here with me. I'm glad your dad let you."

Roman wrinkled her nose. "He didn't _let_ me do anything. I _told_ him I was coming with you and he nodded." she said winking.

Celes laughed and hugged Roman to her. She loved how it felt, times like this she didn't feel like she'd ever have to tell Roman what was going on in dark corridors with Lee. She heated at the thought and looked around before she kissed Roman passionately. They were in a hospital but Celes wanted Roman so badly right then that she searched for a closet and the two of them stole away into it kissing and touching. They made love in the closet three times before they righted their cloths and came back out. Celes blushed and looked around for her cousins and Harry and saw no sign of them.

"So what was that?" Roman asked still sounding breathless.

"I have no idea, I just had to have you." Celes said eyes sparkling.

"That was probably not the best place…" Roman said blushing.

"I know, I'm just so...drawn to you. I want you all the time. I think about you all the time. I can't get enough you." Celes whispered grabbing her hand. "I want you to touch me all the time and I want to touch you all the time." She trailed a hand over her breast igniting the flame again. Celes had to force herself to pull away.

Roman was panting when Celes' family and Harry came back round. They didn't seem to notice instead they told Celes and Roman about seeing Lockhart and Neville's parents.

Celes looked sadly down at her hands when she heard about the Longbottoms. She was so torn about her own life she didn't even seem to notice anyone else' any longer. When did Celes become uncaring? It was almost like going through the motions with her except when it came to Roman and oddly enough Lee. She pressed her lips together and stood when it was time to say goodbye to Arthur. She hugged him and smiled like she was suppose to and then left the hospital with her family, Harry and Roman.

After the holidays Roman, Celes, Harry and the rest of the Weasley lot went back to Hogwarts. On the first day of classes there was a report of ten Death Eaters who escaped from Azkaban. This news had disturbed Roman a great deal but she chose to keep it to herself. Celes was still trying to deal with her grief and she didn't want to make her worry more than necessary. But there was something that was bothering her a great deal.

There hadn't been anymore DA meetings since Christmas but Roman still went to the Room of Requirement to practice. Everyone seemed to get down the Patronus except for her. How was she supposed to help teach the kids if she couldn't even master that.

She stood in the middle of the room trying to summons it but nothing was working. The more frustrated she became the more it wouldn't even work. She growled as she tried to calm down and think of some good memories. It had to be a strong memory that made her happy, but every time she tried to think of a happy memory she would lose it.

"You are trying too hard." Harry told her.

She turned around and gave a little blush. "No, I can't seem to find a very good memory." she told him.

"I had the same problem." he told her as he sat on the ground in front of her. "I thought I was morbid when I finally found my memory. The memory I use is the memory of my mother's voice right before she died."

Roman's eyebrows shot up. This was an odd conversation she was having. She rarely spoke to Harry. She never really felt anything for him except sympathy. He was just a boy with rotten luck and he was still trying to survive.

"When I realized that I could use any memory just as long as it was positive and made me feel good I used that. It's just positive emotion you are casting out so that the world could see."

"Well that exempts me." She muttered as she sat on the ground.

"You love Celes, right? Why don't we start there?"

Roman bit her lower lip. "Its not that easy, Harry. You see I have an… emotional issue." _Yeah its called having your own Soul Eater inside you._ Roman thought to herself. She groaned.

"You know what I have noticed?"

"No, Harry, I do not know what you have noticed. Please share with me what you have notice." She said sarcastically.

"I noticed you have not been your happy go-lucky self. Maybe if you let go of what is bothering you, you will be able to do it."

She snorted, "Yeah, if it were that easy I wouldn't be here having this conversation with you."

"Get up," he told her as he stood up.

"What?"

"Come on, get up." Roman stood.

"I want you to think back on your first year." he told her.

"Okay…"

"Close your eyes and think back on your first year. Everything that happened. You were new and didn't know anyone. Then you became friends with Celes, Fred, George, Lee, Ron, Hermione, and me."

"Okay,"

"Then second year, you had a little fall out with Celes but you two patched it up and now you were friends. Then there was third year. You had a little fall out with Lee but then you two became friends…"

"That is because Celes, Fred and George tricked me. It was muttony."

Harry gave a chuckle at her disgruntlement. "But you loved them for it, right?"

"Yes,"

"Then there was your relationship with Fred. It didn't last too long but you still are friends with him and you still love him too, right?"

"Yes,"

"And George, he is still your friend, right, and you love him. Now think about all your experiments you accomplished here. The trouble you made. Being a diversion for Fred and George by chasing Mrs. Norris."

Roman laughed, "That was one of the funnest thing I did." She then frowned, "But then…"

"No, don't think about the negative. Only the positive."

She nodded.

Harry nodded to Celes as she walked into the room. She stayed quiet as she watched Roman.

"Do you have all those good memories. Can you feel how they made you happy and how each of them made you laugh?"

She nodded.

"Cast the spell." He whispered.

"Expecto Patronum," She whispered. The light shot from her wand and started to take shape but then Roman opened her eyes and found Celes watching her. She smiled as her love for her expanded. Lee entered the room and tears started to stream down her eyes. Her two people she loved the most. The ones she fought with and made up with. Lee had a way of making her open her eyes and heart. She was the one boy she wanted so bad. Then Celes her good friend that she would protect to the end. The only girl she loved.

Her patronus expanded and with a sonic boom it expanded. Lights in the room exploded. The room went pitch black as she gasped and dropped her wand.

"What was that?" Lee asked.

Celes' wand light up with a light so they could see. "Ro, are you okay?"

"Yeah, Harry are you okay." Roman asked.

"Yeah, but I'm with Lee on that, what was that?"

"I don't know." Roman told them.

"Do you think anyone heard that boom?" Harry asked.

"I don't know." Celes told them. "Lets go before someone starts looking."

They all agreed and left the Room of Requirement. "Supper is in a couple of hours." Harry told them. "I'll see you guys downstairs." then he left.

Right then Fred and George ran up to them. "Did you guys see it?" the asked.

"See what?" Lee asked.

"You didn't see it?" Fred asked.

"There was this loud bang noise…" George said.

"And then all of a sudden this light came out of nowhere and it enclosed the whole castle." Fred told them.

"Some kids say it made a shield outside. It was just this pure white light." George told them.

"No one knows where it came from."

"Then it disappeared. It was brilliant."

Celes and Lee looked at Roman. Roman blushed and looked away. "Roman was practicing the patronus charm." Celes told them.

"That was the sound that was made when it spread out and blew out all the lights in the Room of Requirement." Lee told them.

Fred and George looked at her, "Did it take form?" George asked as he started to pull out a journal.

"No, it looked like it was about to," Roman told him. "But then all of a sudden it just blasted off with that sound."

"Interesting," George said as he was busy scribbling down notes.

"So there was no form?" Fred asked again.

"No."

Fred frowned, "Why do you think that?"

"That is a very interesting question." George told him. "Why… did it not… take… form?" he said as he wrote it down.

Roman frowned, "I wanted it to take form but it just… took off. Why do yours take form and mine don't… am I that different that…"

"Ro, babe, you are just special, that is all." Celes told her. "Come on lets get ready for supper." She told her as she pulled her away from the group of guys.

After that day, a few days had passed and Roman found herself sitting alone in a corridor just thinking. After she had casted the patronus charm she had tried it again and again it did the same thing. There was a loud boom, and then it would take off. When she listened to the kids talk about the white shield of light it only made her feel more of an outcast. And because of it she was starting to dislike being different from everyone. Nothing seemed to go right for her and she was tired of it. But how could she become like the others? She wanted to be able to block out other people's emotions, stop reading there memories every time she was touched, and cast a bloody patronus without being the odd man out.

She sighed as she looked out onto the courtyard, there was snow still on the ground and kids played in it. She gave a little smile as she remembered when she tricked Lee, Fred, and George into staying out hours after her trying to center the snowman she was building.

"What are you thinking of?" Celes whispered in her ear and kissed her cheek.

"I was remembering first year. "Remember when I had Fred, George and Lee stay out here trying to make a perfect snowman?"

Celes smiled, "They come in upset with you and put their cold hands on you."

Roman giggled then frowned, "Why can't I be normal for once? I mean, I want to be like you, Lee, Fred, and George. You all seem so normal. When you cast a patronus it takes form, but mind just makes a sound like a stupid blast ended skrewt."

Celes frowned and placed a hand on her thigh, "You are who you are. You just have a different bloodline. No one is normal, Ro. Look at me, do I look normal?"

"Well…"

"You better be careful on how you answer that question." She frowned.

Roman smiled, "Of course you are different. You are amazing with healing and caring for people. You healed me with no one could figure out how to do so."

"Exactly, I am different therefore you are different. No one is the same."

"You know, in first year I would have argued with you and said that Fred and George are the same." she laughed. "They can be twins from hell."

Celes smiled as she scooted closer to her. "Lets go somewhere private." She whispered.

Roman smiled at her, "I think I am fine right here." She told her as she looked at the snow.

"So we are going to play this game?" Celes asked as she got closer, "Indecent exposure isn't my thing but if that is what you want…" She slid her hand higher up her thigh.

Roman giggled then took her by the hand and they went to an empty class. After making love a few times Celes smiled and kissed her one last time then she left. Roman shook her head as she straightened her clothse. Celes had told her at one point that she couldn't get enough of her. It made her insides flutter with excitement. They had been a couple since September and it still felt like it was new. They were always finding hiding places just to get their fill of each other.

Roman bit her lip as she thought of the way she felt against her skin. She smiled and walked out the class. From out of no where someone grabbed her and pushed her back into the room. Roman scratched the hand that held her until she saw it was Lee.

"Damn it, Lee!" she hissed. "You scared the…" She trailed off as Lee pushed her against the door and kissed her. In an instant her body came alive with lust. She tried to push him away but her arms betrayed her and she pulled him closer.

He moaned as he pressed his body as close to hers as he possibly could. His hands worked her shirt and he came in contact with flesh. Roman moaned as he kissed her down her neck and then suck her nipple into his mouth. She pulled him closer as the heat of his mouth seared her skin. His hands trailed further down then came up to her core.

She moaned loudly as his fingers pressed into her. He lifted her leg and thrusted his fingers into her. She rocked back and forth needing an end of the sweet pleasure he was giving her. He kissed her and she nipped at his lips. Those familiar lips that drove her crazy last year. He sucked on her bottom lip and thrust faster with his fingers.

The closer she got to the edge the higher in pitch her moans became until she was clinging to him and scraming out her orgasim. When she would come down from one, another would assault her again. After the fourth one she finally found the strength to push him away. With no one to hold her she slumped down as her body shuddered and rode out the rest of the orgasm. He crawled towards her and kissed her again. She moaned then slapped him soundly across the face.

She glared at him as she continued to shudder. "I told you…" tears gathered in her eyes. "I am not going to do this to Celes. Blaise had already hurt her and I'm not going to do this to her."

"Ro," he moaned as his hands caressed her shoulders.

She whimpered and pushed him away again. "Get out!" she yelled. "Just get out!"

Lee fought the urge to push her to the ground and kiss her. He slowly stood up and made his way out the classroom.

Roman straighten her close and started to cry. She needed to tell Celes and she knew it would hurt her. She didn't want to be like Blaise. And she was now angry at Lee for putting her in this situation.

Celes strolled her way through the school floating about on a cloud, she was in a good mood and that was all thanks to her beautiful girlfriend. She smiled at herself as she rounded the corner to the library and went into it. She went up to the stacks and found them empty and sank down on one of the lounging chairs and daydreamed about Roman. She was still in a lull when she saw Lee coming at her with such fierce passion on his face she nearly cried out. She didn't expect what happened next but when his lips came down on hers Celes was instantly on fire. What was happening? This wasn't happening again no. Celes attempted to push him away but he growled and nuzzled her neck she dropped it to the side and he lightly bit it, Celes moaned. He pushed her shirt up out of the way and leaned down taking her nipple in his mouth she arched her back and he sucked harder making her moan. In the back of her mind she was screaming for this to stop. Something was different this time. They needed to stop but instead she began to undo his trousers. She wasn't thinking about what she was doing until it was done. She didn't wear panties again that day and when Lee entered her she gasped and tears came to her eyes. He thrust in and out of her and she returned his thrust with little moans.

Encouraged by those moans Lee quickened his pace and Celes felt the orgasm rise inside of her building up. When she reached climax she shuddered and he just kept going. Celes didn't get time to even recover he was building her up to another. Finally he seemed to find his own release and they came together. Celes was now bawling into his shoulder and when he pulled away and his eyes cleared he sat back from Celes and covered his mouth with his hands pulling his clothes right.

"What have we done?" he whispered and Celes sniffed sitting up.

"Oh God…" Celes said, "I...we have to tell Roman now. She has to know...oh God she's never going to forgive me. Oh God…" Celes stood up and began to pace. Lee got up and grabbed her shoulders looking her in the eyes she looked at him still crying.

"We can't tell her Celes, we cant." Lee said and Celes began to cry harder.

"Can't tell me what Lee?" came Roman's cold voice and Celes turned eyes wide as her lips trembled and she cried. She stepped forward and grabbed Roman's hand but Roman pulled it away violently.

"You slept with him? With Lee? Celes? Lee?" she demanded she looked from one to the other.

"I... Yes but... but it wasn't I couldn't control it. It was like it was happening to another person and I was just watching." Celes said softly, still crying.

"I came here to tell you he was touching me and _I_ was able to push him off. Why couldn't you?" She then turned to Lee. She started to shake. She was hurt and angry. "You… you… you just left me only to come here for her… why?"

Celes flinched at her last words, like she was the other woman or something, her throat closed up and she couldn't say anything.

"Roman, I just... this year...I've been drawn to her. I can't control it. Its like a force of nature or something." Lee said.

Celes shook her head trying to say something but nothing was coming out.

Tears started to spill out Roman's eyes, "This has happened before? You… both of you…" she gasped as if she felt her heart was about to rip open. "You were my girlfriend… Lee… why are you two doing this to me?"

"Roman...its…" Celes faltered, there was no good way to explain this. There was no way to make this better. She swiped at tears on her face and grabbed at Roman's hands again, this time she got ahold of them and looked at Roman in the eyes. "It was me, I did this. I was acting out... and I was…" she paused looking back at Lee. "I let him, I should have said no. The first time he ever touched me. I did I said no but I should have told you. I...Roman please I love you." she said the last part barely a whisper.

Roman felt her legs nearly gave out, she pushed Celes away. "No… both of you… both of you told me you loved me… this isn't love…" her voice broke with her emotions. "You two both knew… I needed you two more than ever. If I was interfering with your… affair… oh God…" she looked from Celes to Lee and her heart seemed to break more.

"It wasn't an...affair…" Lee said stupidly and Celes turned and gave him an angry look.

"Yes it was you git, and you were the one who started all this!" she shrieked at him. She turned back to Roman. "Roman, it... was…"she struggled to find the right words so of course she didnt. "You, it was you... he said... he said he could feel us when we were... and he just… he fed me all these lines… But I'm to blame too. I could have said no. I should have said no." Celes cried, she didn't notice that a pack of kids were growing behind Roman at this point.

She gave a cold laugh, "So… I'm to blame for this?" she shook her head. "No… both of you said… you… I loved you, Cel…" her voice broke again. "That is why he was there, wasn't it? When I broke down… it was why he was at the apartment… I'm so stupid!" with a spurt of fire she slapped Lee. When that didn't leave anything she slapped him again. "If it was me why did you go after her? Was I… Am I… why do you hate me? I told you I was sorry!"

Lee stepped forward holding his face. "No I do not hate you. I love you. And I dont know why I went to Celes. It had nothing to do with that, I swear I was mad but I moved past it." Lee said and Celes looked from Roman to Lee and back.

"He... I… Roman please." Celes begged her. "I'm sorry. Nothing is wrong with you. I know thats what you're thinking, but nothing is wrong with you please... it was something else…" she faltered feeling her entire body breaking with grief.

Roman whirled around on her, "You… I cannot hit." she took a tight hold of her upper arms and shook her. "You… I…" With one last shake she left, pushing past the crowed of people that formed.

Celes watched her go only vaguely aware of what people were saying. She collapsed onto the floor and cried. Lee came over and touched her shoulder and she pulled away getting up suddenly.

"Don't ever touch me again, Lee Jordan, If you do I'll make sure you lose an appendage." she said and turned and ran from the library desperately searching for Roman. When she found her she was packing in their apartment. She stood at Roman's door.

"You're leaving." she whispered still in tears.

Roman sniffed, "I can't be here." fresh tears came to her eyes. "I can't…"

"Roman, please. We proved along time ago that we can make it through anything. Please dont leave. I... need you." Celes said stepping into her room her heart breaking.

She shook her head. "It hurts… it hurts so much."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't mean for any of this to happen." Celes said and she went over to the bed and grabbed Roman's hand to stop her from packing.

Roman collapsed on the floor and started to cry harder. "I can't… I have…"

Celes followed her to the floor and pulled her into her arms. "I'm sorry Roman, I'm sorry." she said rocking her.

Roman pulled away. She grabbed what she could and left the apartment. It was too much. It was too much. She ran into Dalton and his arms instantly wrapped around her.

Celes got numbly off the floor and looked around the empty room, the only thing left was the decorating and the bed. She crawled into the bed curled into a little ball and cried, everything hurt and she didn't know if she'd be able to go on after this. Roman was gone, she had lost her with one stupid decision, she had made. She had shattered that, it was all over and she couldn't feel anything anymore just pain and grief.

For hours Roman cried. It all hurt, pain, grief, and hate. She was hurt because Lee had went after Celes. Yes, he pursued her but not as much as he did Celes. Was she that undesirable that he wanted another? Yes, she had hurt him last year but she apologized many of times for that. She didn't want that for the both of them. She just wanted Lee. But when Lee had made it clear he didn't want anything to do with her she went on.

Then the pain; her heart felt like it was in pieces and there was no way to come back from it. She loved Celes. She really did love her. She had saw a future with her. Just the two of them. They would raise Lark and Blaise would have days he could take him. She saw it all with Celes. A person to call her own, not caring if anyone whispered about them. She saw a love and most of all a family. But now it was all shattered. Her whole vision crumbled in front of her eyes when she saw them together. How could she have been so blinded by everything not to notice what was going on? She lurched off of Dalton's bed and puked in the bucket he had provided for her.

She cried harder because she hated herself. Everything was all messed up. She knew deep down she was never meant to find love. It was there telling her. The demon was there to remind her of that. Soul Eaters don't love, so why should she love? Every time she had tried something went wrong. First her mother dies, she hated her father, she messed any chances she had with Lee, then Celes… She cried harder.

"It will be okay." Dalton told her as he held her and rocked her back and forth. "You will get through this. I know you will. You are strong in this amazing way that you always pull through."

Roman shook her head, "It hurts too much… It hurts way too much." she cried.

"Shhh…" he soothed and held her tighter. "Just cry it all out."

She didn't know when she had fallen asleep but she woke with massive headache and felt so empty inside. She slowly sat up and held her head. She slowly looked around and found herself in a bed. Dalton was at a table pouring water in a glass. "Where… where am I?" she asked hoars.

"You are in my room." he told her. "I brought you here once I heard what had happened and found you."

"I guess I'm cashing in that thank you." She told him as she took the glass he held out to her. She drank greedily of it and coughed.

"Hey, go easy." he told her as he took the glass from her.

Roman pulled her knees to her chest and looked at the fire that was in the fireplace. She couldn't feel the heat from it. "I need to… I need to go…"

"You are not fit to do anything. Besides all of Slytherins are here. We won't be able to get you out until a couple more hours when they are all asleep."

She nodded as she laid back down. Dalton covered her with a blanket and rubbed her back.

A few hours later she was slipping out the Slytherin dungeon along with Dalton and heading up to the third floor to her work room. Once there she looked at everything all her memories seemed to come flooding back. Celes had came here multiple times. There had been once or twice she had come to her already heated up and just wanted to touch her. It was the one or two times she had questioned her affection for her and now she knew that those one or two times were because Lee had touched her in some way. Celes' touch, whispers, kisses, had seduced her into a stupor of love that she was blinded.

With a burst of energy she pushed everything off her desk. She picked up breakable stuff and threw them against the walls. she ripped old recipes, threw books across the room and flipped over her desk. When everything was in chaos she stopped and slumped down and cried again.

Dalton allowed her to have her tantrum, once she was done he picked her up and took her back to his room. He soothed her all night as she cried and slept.

Celes jolted awake from yet another nightmare and found herself on the floor in the bathroom of her apartment. She slowly got up and looked around the room. She had been camped out in the apartment for a week now and had no plans of ever leaving. She stood and looked at the cracked mirror. She had done that a few days ago while she was getting a drink of water from the faucet. She looked down at her bandaged hand, she hadn't bothered healing it wanting to feel the pain of it. It seemed to be the first thing she had felt in days. She turned away from the broken mirror and went into her room which she had pretty much destroyed. She looked in the corner where a pile of wooden beads lay. She had ripped the bracelet off so violently that it had broken and she had thrown it to that corner, then she had screamed basically causing the room to explode. Of course now she could barely make a pencil float she was pretty sure. She walked out of her room and stopped dead, standing with his back to her was Lee. She hadn't felt him, she didn't even know he was there. She cleared her throat and he turned he looked sad and like he hadn't eaten in as many days as she hadn't.

"What do you want?" Celes asked darkly crossing her arms.

"You missed classes all week, Umbrigde is looking for you." he said lamely.

"So, let her look." Celes snapped.

"You haven't eaten you should come down for supper." He said.

"Look Lee, I'm not interested in having you try to save me okay? Its not your place and frankly it never was. I dont know why I did those things with you and I don't intend on ever repeating them again." Celes said coldly. And Lee smiled, he smiled? What the hell?

"I'm not attracted to you, I never was." Lee said and Celes couldn't help but feel that sting. "I've been thinking about it. Celes you're linked to Roman like I am right? Just in a different way. What if you and her being in a heightened emotional relationship is the reason I was so drawn to you. You were just an extension of Roman."

Celes looked at him like he was crazy but then all the things she and Roman were working on came back to her, the enhanced wandless magic, her desire for both Lee and Roman. She stepped forward.

"I'm not trying to rip your clothes off." she whispered tears coming to her eyes.

"No, and I'm not trying to... do things to you." Lee said.

Celes blinked back her tears and got angry again. "Get out Lee." she said and he stepped back confused. "Go, I don't want to see you. Just go." she said and shuffled back into Roman's room and crawled into the bed. She didn't know if Lee left cause she could no longer feel his presence, she couldn't feel Roman for that matter when she reached out to that place in her it was cold and she recoiled away from it falling back into a fitful sleep.

She woke sometime later and nearly jumped out of the bed in fright when she felt someone sitting next to her. She looked up and found Blaise sitting in the bed holding a tray of food.

"What the hell do you want." she asked sitting up and glaring at him.

"Brought you some food." he said offering her the tray.

"I'm not hungry." she snapped getting out of the bed.

"Well here at least drink the tea." he said putting the tray down and offering her the cup. She looked down at it when she took it. It smelled like Lady gray and it was cloudy which means Blaise had added milk and sugar.

"So when did you stop being british?" he asked almost sarcastically.

"What are you talking about? I'm Welsh." she snapped taking a sip of the tea, the warmth of it didn't seem to affect her to much.

"Celes, we carry on, remember?" he said standing up.

"I dont want to carry on right now, Blaise. It hurts too much to carry on." she growled at him walking away and out into the living room. "You heard no doubt but I basically did what you did last year." she said sinking down onto the couch.

"I don't think there is a person in the bloody school that didn't hear about your fight in the stacks. You slept with Lee?" he asked and she winced looking away.

"I dont want to think about it." she said.

"Celes," Blaise sighed. "You have to come back to school. if you don't, you'll fall behind."

"Did you bring my class work is that why you're here?" she asked.

"Yes... no Celes stop it." he said grabbing her shoulders and giving her a little shake. Celes blinked as tears sprung into her eyes. "Come on. Talk to me."

"I dont want to talk to you." she cried putting down the tea cup and getting up. "I dont want to feel better about all this. I did something terrible and i deserve to feel like this."

Blaise stood and made her stop pacing and looked down at her. "Yeah Tiny you do, but that doesn't mean you stop living."

Celes looked up at him and saw true fear behind his eyes, he thought she was going to do something stupid. "Blaise, i would never ever leave Alaric."

"Lately, with you being non existent in classes, I haven't known. I had to practically beat up Lee to get him to tell me where this place was so I could find you." he said brushing her hair out of her face.

"Dont... dont care about me Blaise I'm toxic." she said pulling away from him.

"Look I brought your school stuff, it's in that chair please come back to school okay." Blaise said and then he turned and left.

Celes turned to the bag in the chair and picked it up. She opened it and sorted through it and in it she found a stack of journals. She pulled them out, they were some of George's intermingled with Roman's. How had Blaise gotten these. She opened the journals and began to flip through the pages. Roman's was mostly filled with notes about her Soul Eater and at the end there was some stuff about Celes' wandless magic. She sighed and touched the drawing of the two of them Roman had done. Then she turned to George's journal so she wouldn't cry. When she opened it she realized it was the Journal about their unity. Celes felt a stab of pain in her chest as she read about it. Then her healer brain turned on and the scientist came out.

She began to flip through both journals comparing and contrasting some things and then when it clicked Celes gasped. She was Roman's catalyst. The cruelest fate of all, Roman needed her to control the Soul Eater. And it wasn't just emotional although that had a lot to do with it. Celes pulled out a clean piece of parchment and began writing down her findings. After an hour and a half Celes looked down at the parchment. It was filled with numbers and charts and pictures she rolled up and got up and went into the bathroom and cleaned herself up. She dressed in what clothes she could find, which turned out to be one of Roman's oversized t-shirts a pair of her own skinny jeans and a pair of soft leather boots. She walked back out into the living room and grabbed the parchment and left her apartment for the first time in a week. She walked through the halls occasionally trying to reach out to Roman only meeting a cold wall. She sighed and looked around, maybe it was lunch time. She went to Great Hall and found Roman sitting at the Slytherin table with Dalton Gray. They were eating, Celes pushed back the stab of pain and walked up to Roman.

"I have to talk to you." she said trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.

Roman didn't look up from her balled position. She had been sitting next to Dalton with her knees to her chest. Every now and then she would numbly reach out and eat something; Dalton had made sure he kept his arm around her and that she ate a little bit. "I don't want to talk." She said in a whisper.

"I know I don't have the right to ask you to, so I'll just say it and be gone. I figured something out about your magic. I figured out how I broke Draco's leg with a thought. It wasn't my magic that did that, it was yours." she threw the parchment onto the table. "Just look at it."

She gave a little glance at it then turned away. "I'm glad you figured out your problem. Just leave me alone."

Celes got angry in that instant. She grabbed Roman's arm and turned her around to face her. "It isn't just _my_ problem it's _ours_ and I think I figured out how you can control your...you know." she said fiercely.

Roman pushed her away, "I don't care any more! If my demon wants me let him have…" She trailed off as something on the parchment caught her eye. She started reading it and then it hit her again. "Oh God." she cried out. "No!" she whimpered. "No, don't do this to me…" tears gathered in her eyes. "No…" Dalton scooped her up in his arms. "Why does the world hate me?" she cried in his chest. "I just want to be left alone…"

"I wouldn't leave you alone even if that right there wasn't that right there." Celes said tears pricked her eyes and she felt a stab of pain in her chest. "I will never leave you alone. I'm sorry for what I did, okay? I'm sorry, but that right there it explains that too." Celes said looking at her curled up in Dalton's arms she could feel Dalton glaring at her and she looked up at him. "Take care of her, she needs you right now." Celes said and turned and left the Great Hall.

Roman cried again. The fates were cruel to her. If it weren't one thing it was another. According to the research that Celes did she was never meant to be in the relationship with her. Close friends, yes but not as lovers. They couldn't have that love that she wanted, the family she saw, it wasn't hers to have. However, what made it this a cruel fate was the fact that Celes was the one that could repress her Soul Eater. Without her she could be consumed by it. Plus the effect of one protecting the host was that their magic grew in power. Once the host and the protector came together to fight it was a power that had never been seen.

Dalton carried her back to his room. He held her and rocked her. He was confused about everything that was said and even what was on the parchment But he wasn't going to ask when it was another wound to her. He had been very careful to keep away from anything that would upset her. He allowed her to cry and throw her tantrums but he was firm with her when it came for her to go back to class and to eat. He walked her to every class and told her to keep her head up. When it came time to eat he made her plate and made her eat at least a little of it.

The first day that he sat her down with him Draco had started in with his snide comments and harsh words. He had put an end to it right then and there. He let everyone at the Slytherin table he would not put up with any rude comments, rude gestures, or hated looks. She was his guest and he was going to make sure she was comfortable. If any of them were going to break his rules he made it clear there was going to be hell to pay.

For the first time the Slytherins came together and embraced her. A girl even offered to bath her and dress her for school since she was so depressed and didn't want to do anything. Dalton was too much of a gentleman to take advantage of her like that. He didn't like her being unhappy but he understood her pain.

"Come on, Ro, let get you to your next class." he told her.

"I don't…"

"Look, I know you don't want to go but your OWLs are coming up and I'm not going to let you fail this just because you are heartbroken. I understand it hurts but you have to understand that when you are done here and you have moved on you will regret not doing well on them. So do this for yourself. Put on a strong face for classes and when you are alone with me, tear it down."

Roman nodded and allowed him to walk her to her classes. She could do this. She had done it first year for a couple of weeks. She would go to her classes learn what she needed to know and not interact with anyone else. She would do it.

A couple of weeks had gone by and the next thing she knew it was her birthday. Alan had invited her down to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate. He had wanted to celebrate with only her since he had missed all her other ones, but he allowed her to bring one friend. Roman and Dalton had made their way to Hogsmeade and sat in the Three Broomsticks waiting for her father. A witch came up to them and showed them to a room.

Alan smiled at her then his frown deepened when he saw her. She had lost a lot of weight from the lack of food, her eyes were black, and she looked pale. "Ro, what happened?" he asked as he immediately pulled her into his arms. "What is going on?"

She started crying again.

He sat down and held her in his lap. "Baby girl, talk to me."

Dalton cleared his throat and closed the door behind him. "I am Dalton Gray." he told Alan as he took a seat on the couch. "I've been taking care of her since Celes and Roman broke up."

"Broke up? What do you mean broke up?"

Dalton relayed the whole story to him and even handed him the parchment Celes had given her. Alan shook his head and held her tighter.

"I am so sorry," he told her. "I tried to warn you last year. I really did." He told her. "I should have recognized it during Thanksgiving. I was just so excited to have everyone here that I didn't see it." He cupped her face and kissed her eyes. "You have to come out of this, Ro. It isn't healthy for you. The more you cry and shut everyone out the more it will grow."

"I don't care," she sobbed.

"Then your mother's death was in vain."

She flinched and looked away.

"I know my words are harsh but you need to hear them. You have to fight it."

"I'm tired of fighting."

"I know, baby. I know; but we are Native. We keep fighting for everything. We will keep fighting until we get it. We don't give up. We teach our children to fight and our children's children."

"But…"

"No, you keep fighting." he told her firmly. He poured her some tea. "Drink this, it will warm you up. It has my special blend of herbs. Your eyes are black, even the whites are starting to turn black."

She drank it and the cold within her started to reside. Her emotions came back harder. She sobbed and Alan shook her.

"Control! You have been in training, don't forget your training. You have to gain control or that thing will take it from you."

Roman nodded and took a deep breath and counted. when she felt like she gained some control of herself she exhaled. Alan cupped her face and looked at her eyes. The whites were starting to turn white again and he was seeing a little of her true eye color come back

Lark cried from the other room and Roman gasped. She stood up and went to him. Alan followed and watched her. She shushed him as she picked him up. He looked up at her with his little teary eyes and then smiled. For the first time in weeks she felt her heart lighten. She smiled back at him played with his little hands.

Alan gave a smile as he saw that her eye color was its true color. He left them alone in the room and sat on the couch across from Dalton. "Thank you for watching her."

"It… was the least I could do… she helped me last year with me and my girlfriend… well, ex-girlfriend now, but she still helped."

Alan nodded and watched him, "Don't get too close, Mr. Gray."

Dalton grew stiff.

"I don't mean to offend you but you and her cannot be. Her fate is already sealed. I know you care for her but try and find someone else."

Dalton nodded, "With all due with respect, I will keep your words in mind but I'm going to continue to care for her."

"Very well, but I did warn you."

Dalton nodded, "Thank you."

The next day Alan sent word to Celes to come to the Three Broomsticks. He had just changed Lark when he heard a rap on his door. He placed the baby down and opened the door. He smiled and hugged Celes. "Oh, Cel, how are you doing?" he greeted her.

"I'm… okay." she told him.

He sat her down and looked into her eyes, "No, how are you really doing?"

It dawned on her what he was asking and she looked away.

"I'm terrible, I have hurt the person I love the most in this world. And I can not fix it and I can not change it." Celes said miserably.

Alan sat next to her and took her into his arms. "This is not your fault. I… I should have warned you. I had tried to warn Ro, but we weren't communicating very well. This has happened before. My wife had told me the tale. When one is hurt and need to be healed spiritually usually its a husband or wife that heals them. There have been some occasions where a friend heals them but. It is rare for it happen. It is then, that they have to find some common ground and boundaries. Especially when it one is mated with another."

"Lee." Celes whispered. "Is that why we…?" she asked feeling that familiar stab of pain in her chest.

Alan nodded, "It was complicated for the both of you. Roman is an emotional creature. She is lead by her emotions. It is one of the reasons why I have sent her to training. She needs to learn to control her emotions or others around her will get her along with her. Mr. Jordan was placed in an awkward situation. He and Ro are mated but yet they can't seem to come together. Usually it means one or both of them are not ready. When the time comes it will happen, however you and Ro are connected and she cannot afford to be without you…"

"I understand that, I did the research I linked it all. But Alan, she doesn't want to be around me ever again." Celes said choking on the last words. "And you are saying that Lee was using me to what? Get his Roman fix without having to be with Roman?"

He brushed a tear from her cheek, "That is exactly what I'm saying. He is not ready and neither is she. But I will tell you this, she does want to be around you. If she didn't she wouldn't have cared for Lark last night. Lark is an extension of you. I know, Ro, she still loves you but she need to sort everything out and come to her conclusion. So this is what I am proposing. This summer I want you and her to train together. I know she is going to be upset with this but she will have no choice… she is still bound to the promise we made each other. She can't get out of it until she is 17."

"I... I'm not sure... if what you're telling me is true, you're saying I got stuck in the middle of Roman and Lee's struggle to find one another. And what's to stop Ro and I from just falling back into old patterns? You can not turn me into a victim, it's not okay. I hurt her. I need to be punished to not turn this. Into be being the victim please." she begged him.

"You are a victim. Think about it, Cel. You lost your brother, your ex-boyfriend left you while you were pregnant, you had no one to cling to except for Ro. Because of the shock I gave her this summer I didn't have time to console her. She needed you and she fed off of your pain as you did her. Instead of working things out you clung to a lifeline that was stronger. She lost her mother at the age of seven. I pushed her away in my grief so I was not able to console her and because of the promise I made my wife I could not reach her. She had to learn to figure things out on her own. She wants love and you loved her. I have no doubt that Mr. Jourdan loves her too but because you have bonded with her you know her deep down. And that is a love she will always protect. Yes, she is hurting but, when push comes to shove, her protective instinct will always win out and she will protect you."

Celes looked down and nodded. She looked up when Alaric made a sound and went over to him. She loved him so much. She touched his cheek and he cooed at her and she smiled at him.

"He is so precious." Celes said looking at her little boy.

"He is." Alan said and Celes spent the rest of the afternoon there.

After her visit with Alan, Celes snapped out of autopilot mode. And actually started paying attention. Celes walked into potions, to her new seat at Harry's table. When she had resumed going to classes after being in the pit of her apartment for a week she had asked if Hermione minded switching places with her, she hadn't, and Now Celes was sitting waiting for the class to start. Roman walked in and sat down at their old table. Celes tried not to look at her as she got out the materials her uncle had listed on the board. Severus came in and said a few things and then they all started. Celes was adding things to her cauldron when Harry stopped her with his hand.

"How are you...erm, doing?" he asked looking at her. She looked up at him and gave a sad smile.

"I'm doing...better." she said and continued brewing her potion.

"I heard about...the stacks." Harry said.

"I don't think there is a bloody person in this school who doesn't know what happened in the stacks." Celes grumbled and blushed a little.

"Erm...yeah." Harry said.

"I'm as famous as you now, Harry." Celes said sarcastically. Suddenly from across the room Pansy let out a laugh and pointed at Celes. Celes set down her eye of newt and stepped back from the table taking a deep breath. "Oy, what's so funny about me Pansy?" she asked.

Pansy looked at her and laughed again. "Well, you're a dirty whore. What else?" she asked.

Blaise stood so quickly that his stool fell over and Celes touched his arm.

"You dont know what you're talking about Parkinson, I suggest you shut it." Celes said a soft rage in her voice.

"I think I do, you cheated and apparently not just with Jordan." Pansy said smirking.

"Oh come off it, not this again." Blaise said crossing his arms.

"Puh-leez you know you did." Pansy said and Celes felt a burst of anger.

"Shut it Pansy." she growled at her. Celes didn't notice that Roman was standing a few inches behind her now.

"No I don't think I will, and I saw you flirting up Potter, was he your next victim." at the word victim Celes flinched and Pansy suddenly let out a scream and fell to the floor. Celes' eyes widened as she saw Pansy was taken by the jelly legs jinx.

Celes whirled around and saw Roman behind her and she glared at her angrily before she gathered her things and left the room before Severus could even ask what happened. She didn't have much of a right to be angry with Roman but with all this new knowledge about Roman's whole deal she was for some reason. She stalked down the corridor and back up the main floor of the castle when she felt someone following her. She turned around to find Harry following her. She sighed and deflated a little.

"Oh Harry, hey." she said and continued to walk up the stairs headed back to her apartment. He followed her silently and when they reached the apartment she waved him in. He went in and took in the main room which appeared as though she had been living in it. There was a blanket on the couch and the of the three doors in the room only one was open and it appeared to lead to a bathroom.

"How'd you get this?" he asked and Celes smiled a little and shook her head dismissing the question. He sat down on the couch and she sat down next to him.

"Okay, well uh…" he said seeming to be at a loss.

"Why'd you follow me back here, Harry?" Celes asked sounding a little exasperated.

"Oh I, I was just wondering if you were okay? I mean come on you're dealing with a lot more then a messy break up." Harry said and Celes tilted her head to the side and gave him a questioning look.

"Celes, your brother died." Harry said and Celes felt that familiar pain and flinched. "Er, sorry."

"No, you're right, but I've been dealing with it." Celes lied.

Harry didn't buy it for one minute. "No you haven't." he said and Celes looked up at him and suddenly her resolve cracked and she covered her mouth and a sob escaped her lips.

"I never got to say goodbye." she whispered. "Hell, I didn't even tell him I loved him the last time I saw him. You know what I said? I said come back to me. What kind of sister says that when her brother is about to go into a situation like that?" Celes asked as tears fell silently down her cheeks.

"Celes he knew you loved him. The reason I made the extra effort to bring him back is because he wanted you to have closure." Harry said softly.

Celes looked at him and sniffed. "Really?" she asked and Harry nodded. Celes cried harder and dropped her head down onto her legs.

"Celes I think it's going to be okay." Harry said softly and Celes looked up again.

"I missed Roman's birthday." she whispered lip still trembling.

"Did you get her something?" he asked. She nodded, getting up wiping her face, she grabbed the small velvet box with the little purple ribbon around it and handed it to Harry.

"You should give it to Cho." she said. "Its a white gold band with butterflies etched into it." she said sitting back down and Harry grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to work out." he said but he kept the box. Celes didn't know why and honestly she didn't really care too much either.

"You should go, I have a mound of homework. I'll see you tomorrow." she said standing and he stood and awkwardly hugged her and then left. Celes went back to her couch and sat down. She started in on her homework.

Later when Celes had finished her homework she put it all back in her bag and laid down on the couch pulling the blanket up to her chin. And this was the hard part of her life right now, she started thinking of all the things that made her sad and began to cry again. She cried herself to sleep that night and didn't wake up again until early morning when she drug herself to the bathroom to be sick. She curled up on the bathroom floor and went back to sleep ended up sleeping all day and missed classes all day. She woke up again with a fever. She looked around dizzy and got up and drank from the faucet and stumbled out of the bathroom to go to the couch and Lee was standing there.

"Oh for God's sake! Lee you can't keep coming here like this. I don't want to see you, please go." Celes sighed sitting down and he sat down next to her. She fixed him with a dirty look.

"You feeling alright?" he asked taking in her flushed blotchy complexion.

"I probably just have the flu, now go away, Lee." Celes said pushing him a little.

"Go to the hospital, Celes." Lee said and got up and left.

Celes sat on the couch for a little while and then once she had collected herself she got up and left the apartment to try to get to the Hospital wing. She made it about halfway there when she suddenly felt very faint and without warning she passed out.

Blaise found her passed out in the corridor about 20 minutes later and rushed to her side.

"Celes?" he asked, he could tell she was still breathing but she was still passed out and very warm. He picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the Hospital where Poppy took him to a bed and he sat down and stayed with her all night.

Roman sat in the library when Harry arrived. He sat next to her, "Hi, Ro." he greeted.

She gave him a nod and continued to work on her homework.

"So, how are you doing in Transfiguration?" he asked.

"Fine," she told him.

"Well, I should be going." He told her as he left.

Roman was a little confused by his behavior. She looked up and paused when she saw a small purple box with a bow. She opened it and saw a white gold band with butterflies etched into it. A note that was written said Happy Birthday. She recognized the handwriting right away. It was from Celes. Roman looked around to find Harry but he was no where to be seen.

She toyed with the ring a little and then slipped it on. The cool metal seemed to burn her. She slipped it off and put it back into its box. There was a big part of her that wanted to go to her and kiss her. Her body seemed to burn every time she saw her. She had tried to coax Dalton into touching her but he refused. Then she called herself all kinds of idiots. She knew that he had a girlfriend even though they were on a break.

She packed her things and walked out the library holding the ring box in hand. The smooth velvat tickled her fingers as she played with it.

"Did you hear? Celes was found passed out in a corridor." A girl whispered to her friend as they passed Roman.

Roman's heart sped up and she found herself running towards the hospital wing. She may be hurt and upset with her, but she didn't want to see her hurt. When she arrived Poppy was shooing Blaise out the hospital wing.

"I understand that you want to help but she needs rest and food. If there is any change I will let you know." Poppy told him.

Roman slipped into a shadow and then slipped passed them. She walked over to Celes' bed and paused. She was pale and sweaty. Roman placed a hand on her forehead. She was burning up. She put her bag down and poured cool water in the bowl and put a cloth into the bowl. After ringing it she placed it upon her forehead.

"You are so…" Roman trailed off. "Just because I'm upset with you doesn't mean you stop taking care of yourself." she hissed at her. "I am so angry with you but yet I find it hard to keep it. I don't know why. I wish… I just wish this didn't happen." She placed the cloth back into the water and rang it out. "I have been doing a lot of thinking and I have come to the conclusion that we weren't supposed to be with each other. We were just too dark for each other." she placed the rag back on her forehead. "I really hope you start to feel better. I want you to be your caring cheerful self again."

"Miss McTaggert, you should not be here." Poppy told her.

"Sorry, I just had to check to see that she was okay."

Poppy's eyes softened. "Very well, but you will need to leave."

"Yes ma'am." Roman pulled out a small parchment and wrote a little note. She placed it in her hand. She bit her lower lip and kissed Celes on the forehead. "I still love you." she whispered then she left.

Roman made her way to the Great Hall and paused when she saw Lee. She quickly turned away and walked passed him. She had been avoiding him ever since she caught him. It still hurt no matter what. Weather she thought about it or if she saw him. She was finally pulling herself together and Dalton was to thank for it. He made sure she did what she needed and still held her when she cried. She had thought she was done crying but there had been many nights where she woke with him shaking her awake. She didn't know what was going on until she stopped crying.

One night she had slipped out of Slytherin dungeon and went to her work room. The room was still a wreck, her bad feelings seemed to linger in the room. She wanted to move her work room but she knew it was only her running away. She needed to face her problems. The only thing that seemed to keep her going these days was that fact that she knew summer break was coming and she would be working her feeling out with physical exercise.

Lee watched as Roman walked away. He had tried to talk to her but she would only ignore him, hit him and worse was she freezed him out. When he had tried to make her talk to him the markings on his arms froze him cold. He had quickly let her go and she left. He ran his hands through his dreadlock and sighed.

"Mr. Jordin, you have a visitor." A student told him. She showed him to a class room and then left.

Lee frowned then walked inside. When he saw Scott he sighed and closed the door, "Before you…"

"You slept with Celes Diggory?" he yelled at him. "What in the bloody hell were you thinking? Of all people Celes Diggory? Roman's best friend? I had been waiting word or a note saying you and Roman slept with each other but not this!" he threw the note at him.

Lee frowned as he looked at it then groaned. Celes had sent a letter to him about what happened. "Scott, it was… complicated."

"Complicated? Complicated? Why don't you uncomplicate it and tell me what in the hell is going on? Better yet," he grabbed him by the arms and shook him violently. "This was not the plan!"

"Scott," Lee pushed him away, "Look, I know that you are upset but I hurt Ro…"

"No, you think?" Scott said sarcastically. "I would never have guessed that." he told him.

"Look, she was dating and sleeping with Celes."

Scott paused, "Now that is new information." he said as he sat down. "She was dating Celes?"

Lee ran his hands through his dreads again, "They were dating, and her emotions have been so strong that I could feel them. Just like last year. My marking would reappear out of no wear and I could feel everything she was feeling… especially when her and Celes were… you know."

Scott's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"They did it every damn day all bloody day long!" Lee growled. "I could never catch a break! But then I started to feel what Roman was feeling for Celes. Especially after they just 'played' with each other. I found myself wanting to touch her… but not only her… I wanted Roman. I wanted Roman so bad…"

"Then how in the bloody hell did you get with Celes?"

"Roman would push me away. She would tell me that she wouldn't do to Celes what Blaise did to her. I tried… I tried to stay away from her from then on. But I was drawn to Celes. I could feel Roman all over her. Not just feel her, I could smell her and taste her…"

"So you slept with Celes because it was Roman you wanted."

Lee sighed, "I not only hurt Ro but I hurt Celes. I should have stayed away. I tried to stay away. But I should have tried harder."

"You damn right you should have." Scott stood up and rubbed his face. "You have made a mess of everything."

"I need you to help me. Roman won't talk to me now. Celes tell me to go away every time I go near her. I try to apologize to Celes…"

"You made a mess of everything. I don't think I can help you with this."

"But you…"

"You shouldn't have slept with Celes."

"I told you I couldn't help myself."

"Lee, get a hold of yourself!" Scott said as he shook him. "You messed this up now you have to suffer. Give them time. That is all you can do."

Lee sat down as he pulled on his dreads. "I want Roman to forgive me. I want her…"

"This is your last year. You only have a few months left. All I can say is that you need to leave them alone. Let time heal."

Lee groaned, "I messed up."

Scott pulled him up to his feet. "Yes, I know you did." He straighten Lee's collar. "Now prepare yourself. I need to make a scene and you need to make it look convincing."

"What are you talking about?"

"I snogged Roman just as I entered here."

Not thinking right Lee pushed him away, "You did what?"

Scott opened the door to the class room and started to walk out. "You heard me!" he yelled over his shoulder.

"Scott!" Lee yelled as he ran after him.

Scott turned quickly and slapped the crap out of him. "Until you get your act together don't talk to me!" he yelled. Everyone around stopped and watched him. "I trusted you and this is what you do? You…" he slapped him again then pulled his face close to his so it looked like they were kissing. "See you in a couple of months." Then he turned and walked away.

Celes spent the rest of the week in the hospital wing, Poppy made her eat three meals a day. Celes kept the note from Roman tucked away and pulled it out when she needed a little boost. There was a light at the end of this terrible tunnel. She knew that things would never be the same but at least she was on the mend and Roman was going to talk to her again.

She took another small bite of the fruit on her plate when she saw Blaise walk in. She waved but didn't smile and he came over and sat down next to her bed. He had been coming every day.

"Your color looks better." he remarked watching her eat and she nodded.

"I feel better although I'm behind again on classes. The OWLs are coming up and then…" she lowered her voice. "DA...are people learning any healing now?"

"Well we actually haven't been meeting since Umbridge cracked down all these stupid rule things" Blaise said and Celes nodded moving onto her main course. She ate slowly still not used to it.

"So, hows having food again?" he asked half sarcastically.

"I ate before this, I just didn't eat a whole lot." Celes said indignantly.

"Uh-huh, that's why I found you passed out in a corridor with like 105 fever." Blaise said but she could see the worry in his eyes as he said it.

"I'll keep eating. Okay I'll take care of myself again." Celes said.

"Yes you will cause I'm stuck to you like glue. I told Madam Pomfray I'd be moving into the apartment to make sure of that." Blaise said. Celes' eyes widened.

"They approved that?" Celes asked.

"Yes they did, the house elves are there right now cleaning the place up and moving me in." Blaise said and Celes groaned leaning back.

"Come on, man." Celes said frustrated.

"Please Celes, I'm staying in the other room okay it's not like we are going to have to sleep in the same bed." Blaise said and Celes blushed a little picking at her food. Blaise cleared his throat and smiled. "But we are taking you home as soon as you finish this meal."

Celes nodded and after a second she pushed the food away. "Take me home please."

Blaise nodded and gave her the privacy to change and then the two of them went back to that apartment. When they walked in Celes found it completely redecorated. It didn't feel like the apartment she and Roman had inhabited. She went over to Roman's old room and found it was completely different as well. Clearly designed for Blaise she went over to her room and found it cleaned up and her bed repaired it was pretty much the same. She dropped her robe on the bed and then walked back out into the living area. She joined Blaise on the couch and looked at him.

"So roomie." she said hitting him lightly on the shoulder.

"Yeah." Blaise said and both of them looked around uncomfortably.

"So... do you think Roman will talk to me again?" Celes asked.

"Yeah Celes, the two of you were more than that relationship." Blaise said looking at her.

Celes' lip began to tremble and tears spilled down her cheeks. "What if she doesnt?"

Blaise instantly became what she needed and pulled her onto his lap so she could hug him. "She will Celes, she loves you." Blaise said softly stroking her hair.

"I love her too. I've really hurt her... well I assisted in hurting her." Celes said softly.

"Its going to be okay, Tiny, okay. I'm here and I'm going to be here for you." Blaise said pushing his face into her neck. She sighed and relaxed in his arms and they just sat that way for a while.

Celes went to dinner with Blaise and he elected to sit with her at Gryffindor table. He filled a plate for her and made her eat while she listened to Harry talking about something that had happened in classes that day. Celes was trying to pay attention but all she could do was think about her bad feelings. She ate absent mindedly and in a half lull daydreamed about better times. Then Blaise was tapping her on the shoulder. She looked up at him and he pointed, she followed his finger to where Lee was sitting and her eyes narrowed. She saw a bruise and a dirty look in her direction. Scott got her letter. She was going to get back up and apologize but she didn't feel sorry. It was Lee's own fault and she thought. He deserved whatever he got. She turned away from him and shrugged.

"He got what he deserves." Celes said coldly.

"Awe, Tiny, you can't mean that." Blaise said.

"You know what, right now I do, I may not somewhere down the road but right now I totally mean it. If that dickweed had just left me alone none of this would have happened." Celes said as she was getting angry.

"Celes you have got to calm down." Blaise said. "Clearly when you get upset bad things happen."

"Bad things, you mean Draco's leg and Pansy's jinx? That only works when Roman and I are working together." Celes said dismissively.

"Well she's right over there." Blaise said pointing to her sitting with Dalton. Celes looked at Roman and at that moment she chose to turn and look at her. She gave a little wave and Celes' heart leaped into her throat. Celes waved back and then turned away tears springing into her eyes.

"Too much." Celes whispered getting up suddenly.

"Do we need to go?" Blaise asked touching her back lightly.

"Uh, yeah, I have...uh, homework." Celes said and Blaise and Celes left the Great Hall.

Later that night after Celes lay in her bed staring at her scarred arm, it was late and she still wasn't asleep. Of all the things that went back to normal that was not one of them. She usually only slept a few hours every night. She looked across the opened doors across the bathroom and Blaise. He was sleeping. She slipped out of her bed and walked over into his room. So different from when it was Roman's she tapped on his shoulder, he rolled over looking groggy.

"Celes, what's wrong?" he asked sleep coating his voice.

"I can't sleep, can...can i sleep in here with you?" she asked softly. Without hesitation Blaise moved to the other side of the bed and pulled the blanket back. She crawled into his bed and laid down. She took Blaise's hand and closed her eyes and before she knew it she was asleep.

A couple of week had gone by and it was nearly time for OWLs. Roman had gone back to her work room after she had done her homework just to keep her mind going. Late at night she would go back to Dalton's room and crash out. By doing this she figured out she wouldn't cry out and Dalton would finally get some sleep. She appreciated all he had done but she didn't want to strain him any further.

As she was working in her work room she heard a knock on the door. Her heart leaped as she looked at the door. She had to clear her throat a couple of times, "Come… Come in." She called out.

The door opened and she held her breath, Fred poked his head in and gave her a smile. "Hey Ro." he greeted.

Roman gave a smile, "Hey," she said as she tried to keep from showing her disappointment.

"Did I come at a bad time?" he asked her.

"No, come in." Fred stepped in followed by George.

"Hey Ro."

"Hey, how did you find my room?"

"We borrowed the map from Harry." Fred told her.

"You almost had us. How did you project your presents across the castle?" George asked.

Roman shrugged, "I learned it during the summer trainings."

"It had us really looking for you. This was the last place." Fred told her as he looked at some of the things she was working on.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked.

"Look, we… we are 17 now and we no longer need to be here. We know what we want to do and by being here its not going to happen and we want to go out and start putting our name out there."

"Yeah," George pipped up. "We want to start our shop and since we are already 17 we don't have to take Umbridge's abuse any more."

Roman sat down as her heart fell, "I… I see… So you are going to leave?"

"Yeah, but we didn't want to leave without at least telling you." Fred told her.

"And that you will be okay." George added.

"I will be okay." She smiled at them, "I look forward to visiting."

"Ro, you will always have part ownership with our shop. Many of your products will be on our shelves. So therefore you will have money coming towards you."

Tears gather in her eyes and she wrapped her arms around Fred, "I don't want you guys to go. I don't want either one of you go. I want you two to stay here."

"Oh, Ro." George and Fred both hugged her. "We will see each other again."

"I love you guys. I truly do. I know it didn't work between us, Fred. But I do love you."

"Ro," Fred pushed some of her hair out of her face. "I love you too. And I was a total git by ignoring you. I just felt like I failed you when I lost your money. It was the first task you assigned me and I failed you."

"You are a git." Roman told him. "I didn't care. You could have told me what happened. I would have helped."

"I tried to tell him." George told him. "A pride strik this one has."

"Hey!"

Roman giggled, "My devil's twins." she said as she hugged them both.

They laughed and kissed her at the same time on her cheek. "You know, you are no saint either." They said in unison."

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I was the perfect student before you two influenced me. So therefore, you to are the devil's twins."

"Well, in that case we need to bring out that devil influence to help us create a diversion." Fred told her.

"It may get you in trouble." George add.

"One last prank before you leave, just the three of us?"

They smiled, "We either go big or not at all."

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Roman smiled.

"Mischief managed." the twins said in unision.

The next day Roman paced her work room a little nervous. She had only a couple of hours to help come up with a prank. Fred and George had their parts planned now it was just up to Roman. She looked over to her cauldron and then paused. Her energy potion she was working on had been finished. She just hadn't tested it. She smiled and stepped towards it. She spooned some into a vial and drank it. At first nothing seemed to happen. Then it all hit her at once. She got this energy boost out of no where. Her insides started to jump, her pulse quickened, and she found herself jumping around. A sound was filling the room and she frowned as she looked around. WHen she caught herself in the mirror she saw she was laughing.

She paused as she gave an evil look and looked at the room. "Walking up walls, I wonder if that is possible? She ran from one side of room to the other and tried to run up the wall. Then she ran to the other side of the room and tried again. She did this a couple of times until she was successful at running up the wall and flipping back onto the ground. She did this for a good hour until her ukelele caught her eye.

An hour later Roman was walking to potions singing and strumming her ukulele. She was already late for class as it was. She kicked open the door and paused as everyone turned and looked at her. Snape glared at her.

"Miss McTaggert, you are..."

"Oh I'm late. I beg you my Snape. Please don't give me detention, Even though we have to keep up this reputation. But I know this our fate. You are to be my mate." She sang. Everyone's mouth dropped open in shock. Celes snorted and gave a laugh.

"Oh the love I have for you. It is true. This is the only way you can look my way. So I will stay. It's tearing me up inside. I want you by my side. Do you know how hard it is to cover my emotion? So I must cause a commotion. Oh I'm late. I beg you my Snape. Please don't give me detention. Even though we have to keep up this reputation. But I know this our fate. You are to be my mate. You never show your love but I know it's strong. Please don't make me wait too long. I need to hear your words to comfort me. This is what I see. In my wonderland, We will walk hand in hand. We will be the topic of every conversation. I know this won't be my imagination. Oh I'm late. I beg you my Snape. Please don't give me detention. Even though we have to keep up this reputation. But I know this our fate. You are to be my mate." As she sang she circled around a red faced Snape.

"I'm begging you, please. As I fall on my knees." She got down on her knees. "I can't stop these tears, From flowing from my eyes. Return my love. Let us fly away on a dove. My heart is in a conviction. Over your hidden action. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh! I'm late. I beg you my Snape. Please don't give me detention, Even though we have to keep up this reputation. But I know this our fate. You are to be my mate" Roman blew him a kiss and walked out the class.

Celes stood in complete and utter shock, she was smiling. Roman clearly was high on something, probably sugar. She would have to have a word with Dalton later. She turned back to her uncle and began to laugh at the look on his face. She stepped forward and took his hand still laughing.

"Please...continue….Professor…" she barely got out and she saw Blaise shaking in laughter. Celes went back to her stool still laughing. It was bloody good to see Roman back to her old tricks.

Roman hummed to herself as she walked out the room. She used her powers to ditch Umbridge, professors, and Filtch, Mrs. Norris, and Umbridge's minions. As it got closer to lunch she had a completely different song she was singing.

It was now lunch time and most of the kids were gathered in the Great Hall for lunch. Roman entered and stood on the Hufflpuff table and strummed her Ukelele to get everyone's attent. She looked around at everyone then she saw Celes. She smiled at her and started to knew song.

"Oh Celes, love is a mess. But I don't care, cause love is a dare." she blew a kiss at her then pointed at Ron, "Ron loves wizard's chess, But Hermione likes it even less. I want a black mare, But Hagrid won't share. Dumbledore is said to be away, But I think he needs a lei. Oh professor Snape, You're never late." she winked at Snape and he turned red again. "I'll do what professor McGonagall say, Because I'll have a free day. Draco Malfoy is number eight, because he isn't my best mate. Fred and George are wanted masterminds, And I made all the signs. Umbridge is a psycho pink crazy lady, And she is after Katie. And she is going to make us do lines, She thinks I'll do it but that isn't my kinds. She also thinks I'm flaky, But I just like sake…" she paused and frowned, "That doesn't make sense." She said as she frowned at her ukelele as if it made her sing it. Then she strummed it again. "Professor Flickwick is short, He fits in my fort. Don't tell him or I'll get detention, And I can't pay attention, Harry Potter when to court, I hope he gets a consort. I have tension, And I got into a contention. I have white fur, I wish Celes would let me kiss her. Because she is attractive, But Blaise is irritative, But if he got into my business he would be a murder, Cause I can be crazy like Dr. Frank-N-Furter. And he really wants to live, Even though I am annoitive. Wait!" she shouted. Then she pointed to a Hufflpuff girl. "Is that a real word?"

The looked around a little uncomfortable, "Uh, I… I… I don't know."

"Oh well, back to the song." She strummed her ukelele. "Lavender Brown likes to snog, I think it means to snore and being a hog. Because she can be clingy, I think she is dingy. Someone needs to hit her with a log, And Sirius Black can pee on her because he is a Dog! In the future there will be a rapper name Chingy, And he won't be able to singy. Does anyone have broken quill they can lend, So I can mend. I wish I had a cot, And it would have a poka-dot! This is the end, I'll email it and press send. But lastly Lee is Super, mega, foxy, awesome, hot, And I love him a lot!"

With the end of song there was huge boom sound. Somebody had set off what seemed to be an enormous crate of enchanted fireworks.

Dragons comprised entirely of green and gold sparks were soaring up and down the corridors, emitting loud fiery blasts and bangs as they went; shocking-pink Catherine wheels five feet in diameter were whizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers; rockets with long tails of brilliant silver stars were ricocheting off the walls; sparklers were writing swear words in midair of their own accord; firecrackers were exploding like mines everywhere you looked, and instead of burning themselves out, fading from sight or fizzling to a halt, these pyrotechnical miracles seemed to be gaining in energy and momentum the longer he watched.

Filch and Umbridge were standing, apparently transfixed in horror, halfway down the stairs. As everyone watched, one of the larger Catherine wheels seemed to decide that what it needed was more room to manoeuvre; it whirled towards Umbridge and Filch with a sinister 'wheeeeeeeeee'. They both yelled with fright and ducked, and it soared straight out of the window behind them and off across the grounds. Meanwhile, several of the dragons and a large purple bat that was smoking ominously took advantage of the open door at the end of the corridor to escape towards the second floor.

"Hurry, Filch, hurry!" shrieked Umbridge, "they'll be all over the school unless we do something - Stupefy!"

A jet of red light shot out of the end of her wand and hit one of the rockets. Instead of freezing in midair, it exploded with such force that it blasted a hole in a painting of a soppy-looking witch in the middle of a meadow; she ran for it just in time, reappearing seconds later squashed into the next painting, where a couple of wizards playing cards stood up hastily to make room for her.

"Don't Stun them, Filch!" shouted Umbridge angrily, for all the world as though it had been his incantation.

"Right you are, Headmistress!" wheezed Filch, who as a Squib could no more have Stunned the fireworks than swallowed them. He dashed to a nearby cupboard, pulled out a broom and began swatting at the fireworks in midair; within seconds the head of the broom was ablaze.

Roman had seen enough; laughing, she ducked down low, ran to a door he knew was concealed behind a tapestry a little way along the corridor and slipped through it to find Fred and George hiding just behind it, listening to Umbridge and Filch's yells and quaking with suppressed mirth. She laughed and smiled at Harry who had also arrived.

"Impressive," Harry said quietly, grinning. "Very impressive . . . you'll put Dr. Filibuster out of business, no problem . . ."

"Cheers," whispered George, wiping tears of laughter from his face. "Oh, I hope she tries Vanishing them next . . . they multiply by ten every time you try."

"And a round of applause to the beautiful and talented Roman." Fred said as he hugged her and kissed her cheeks.

"I couldn't have done that in a million years!" George told her. "Where did you get that idea?"

"Energy potion, never know what you are going to do or say!" she said in one breath.

"Oh, Merlin, you are still high on it, aren't you?" They said in unision.

"I feel like I can run so fast I could probably run on the lake and not sink in." She grinned.

The fireworks continued to burn and to spread all over the school that afternoon. Though they caused plenty of disruption, particularly the firecrackers, the other teachers didn't seem to mind them very much.

"Dear, dear," said Professor McGonagall sardonically, as one of the dragons soared around her classroom, emitting loud bangs and exhaling flame. "Miss Brown, would you mind running along to the Headmistress and informing her that we have an escaped firework in our classroom?"

The upshot of it all was that Professor Umbridge spent her first afternoon as Headmistress running all over the school answering the summonses of the other teachers, none of whom seemed able to rid their rooms of the fireworks without her. When the final bell rang and the students were heading back their houses with their bags, Roman saw, with immense satisfaction, a dishevelled and soot-blackened Umbridge tottering sweaty-faced from Professor Flitwick's classroom.

"Thank you so much, Professor!" said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice. "I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether or not I had the authority."

Beaming, he closed his classroom door in her snarling face.

"Professor Umbridge." Roman called out. "I love that color on you!" she told her as she walked away. "Oh, by the say, there is a HUGE swamp in the corridor over there." she pointed.

Umbridge huffed and went running down the hall.

Fred and George smiled as they watched Umbridge run down the hall. "Well, Roree, it's time for us to go." said George.

"Awe, but…"

"Don't worry, we will see you again." he told her and hugged her.

Fred smiled and hugged her too. He cupped her face and kissed her forehead. "You take care of yourself and be nice."

"I am always…"

"No you aren't and you know it. Now go have fun and get into lots of trouble." he kissed her one last time and the twins flew off.

Roman smiled to herself as she skipped down the hall and bumped into Celes. "Hey, Cel. Did you like my song?"

Celes gave a small smiled. "Yes, what made you act like that...and Severus...he never looked more embarrassed in his life!" Celes said.

Roman skipped around her in circles, "I don't know. All I know is last night Fred and George came to me and said we should do one last prank before they left. I decided to test my energy potion and BAM!" she yelled, "I was like, song time. Do you think I can run on water? I should go try. Wait!" she paused as she looked around as if she just heard something. "I can run up walls. Watch!" she ran towards a wall ran up and did a backflip off. "Ta-da!"

"Roman, you're a little high right now, that energy potion it really working."

"You think so? I feel like I can run around the world 5 times and not be tired one bit!" she snapped her fingers. "Where is Blaise? Dalton!" she called as he walked down the hall towards them. "Dalton, we have a secret mission to do. Celes… tell him the mission."

"Uh, feeding you, I think getting some of that energy potion to wear off." Celes said.

"No, that's not the mission. The mission is to go undercover," She crouched really low and looked around. "Sneak into Slytherin dungeon and cause mass mayhem and world wide panic! A couple of dung bombs should work."

Dalton frowned, "Uh, no it wouldn't, we sleep there." He told her.

"Oh yeah that's right!" Roman turned to Celes wrapped her arms around her and dipped her. Her face got really close as if she was going to kiss her. "Did anyone ever tell you how pretty your eyes are?" she whispered.

Celes blushed and smiled a little and stood back up. "Uh, no Ro, you'd be the first person." she said. "What did you want Blaise for?"

Roman frowned, "I wanted Blaise? Humm… What did I want Blaise for? Dalton, what did I want Blaise for?"

He shrugged, "Would it be a number of threats you wanted to fulfill?" he asked.

"No, it was to do something..." Roman said as she paced. She turned back to Celes and wrapped her arms around her then she kissed her. When she pulled back she smiled. "I have been wanting to do that for so long! Uh-oh. Time to sleep." right then she passed out.

Celes caught her, sagging under Roman's weight, Dalton came over and took her from Celes.

"Erm...it's hard to think when she's like that." Celes said. She was still blushing and tingling from the kiss.

Dalton nodded, "I will put her to bed." he cradled her closer, "She… she is getting better but she still cries at night. She won't tell you this, but she does miss you." he told her.

Celes smiled and saw that Dalton was falling for Roman. She touched Roman's cheek and looked up at Dalton through guarded eyes. "Be careful Dalton. Really. She's...fragile and spoken for." Celes whispered.

He nodded, "I already got the warning from her father, and like I told him. I am going to continue to care for her." He gave her a little bow and walked off with Roman.

Celes still moped sometimes but she was getting better too. Lee didn't skulk around anymore which was nice. She even found that she didn't think about all the bad things that happened. It usually only happened when she was talking to people and she temporarily forgot things. It all came back at night, but she had help with that too since the first night she had asked she slept in either Blaise's bed or her own with Blaise next to her. He seemed to be content with the situation. He didn't ask for more and he didn't press her about what happened between her, Roman, and Lee.

On the final day of OWLs during the History of Magic one Harry had a nightmare. Celes had been sitting closest to him and went over to help him as the teacher insisted he go to the hospital wing. She followed him as he went to try to see Professor McGonagall who had been injured a few days before by being stunned five times. They found out that she had been transferred. Celes sighed as Harry made his way to another part of the school. It was in that moment that she and Harry ran into Hermione and Ron and finally she got to find out what was wrong.

"Voldemort has Sirius." he said.

"How do you-" Ron started.

"I saw it." he cut Ron off. "We need to get to the Ministry."

"Whoh, whoh, Harry you have to slow down." Celes said.

"Celes I can't. If I do he'll die!" Harry exclaimed.

"Okay, Okay you figure out how to get there and I'll gather the D.A." Celes said putting her hands up and turning at a run to find Blaise. She found Roman first. She stopped breathing hard.

"Ro….Sirius….Ministry….Voldemort." she said panting.

"Okay… they are all names." Roman said a little confused then she frowned. "They better not be names of bad guys, cause I am not a villain."

"No, Harry he saw that Voldemort has Sirius at the Ministry and if we don't get there soon then he will kill him." Celes said

"Got it! I'll go get more people, where are we meeting?" Roman asked.

"Erm...I don't know...I left before I could ask we should try to figure out how we can get there from here its not like any of us can Apperate." Celes said feeling a little stupid.

Roman rolled her eyes, "Fine, gather who you can, I'll meet you back here. If anything we are probably gonna have to fly out of here… Hagrid might have some more hippogriffs…. wait, damn he isn't here… we'll figure something out."

Celes clapped her hands together. "Okay, meet you back here, babe." she said and stopped at her last word. "Sorry."

Roman gave her a sad smile, "It's okay. You can still use it. You will always be Cel bear to me."

Celes smiled as a small weight lifted off her heart. "Okay." Celes said and with one last look she took off to her apartment to find Blaise.

When she burst in the door he looked up a little surprised.

"Celes what's going on?" he asked standing up.

"The DA signal is up." she said and when he stared at her not sure what she was talking about she rolled her eyes and groaned. "Come on we are going to the Ministry." she took his hand and began to drag him out of the apartment. He pulled her back so that she was against him.

"Why?" Blaise asked softly. Celes blushed and pulled away.

"Harry needs us." Celes said softly.

"Oh." Blaise said stepping away but still following her out of the apartment. Celes gathered a few more members and met up with Roman shortly after. They were headed towards...somewhere when they ran into Ron, Harry, and Hermione. They were coming in from outside.

"First plan didn't work. We have to get there." Harry said and Luna stepped forward.

"We could take the Threlstels." she suggested and everyone nodded although half of them didn't even know what she was talking about. Celes did and she looked at Roman knowing that she did as well.

Roman smiled big, "Riding a skeletal horse with wings? Count me in! You know what would make this a whole lot better, if I was like most of you and I couldn't see them. Talk about a thrill of a life time."

Hermione groaned, "Ro, please shut up."

"What I was just saying it would look like there was nothing under you and you were just flying."

Hermione groaned again.

Before Celes knew it they were landing at the dodgy phone booth, the visitors interest. They all crammed in the box and Harry dialed the number and lowered down and Celes felt a flutter in her stomach of anticipation, or maybe that was the fact she was pushed up against Roman. She didn't know but she bolted from the phone booth the second it stopped. They made their way as a tightly packed group wands out towards the elevator system they started going to The Department of Mysteries. When they got there they ran around for a bit and Harry pointed to a door.

"Thats the door." Harry said.

Everyone made their way through it and they entered a room full of orbs, loads of them. Celes turned around her mouth open and looked around and caught up to the group.

"Harry, what are we looking for?" she asked walking slightly behind him.

"My prophecy." he said and then stopped at a shelf and pulled down one of the orbs and then suddenly a load of people disappeared around them and Celes' stomach plummeted to her feet. The one standing in front of them was Lucius Malfoy.

"Uncle Lucius." Celes gasped and he clucked his tongue at her as a crazy laugh filled the room.

"Hand over the prophecy please." Lucius said holding out his hand.

"He will not give it to you." Celes said stepping out in front of Harry. She stared him down. Her wand was raised slightly and suddenly the room filled with yells of different spells and Roman yelled "Run." they made their way back down the corridor. About half way the split up and Celes found herself running with Roman. She turned and grinned at her and Roman grinned back. As scary as it was they were excited as well. Then they all came back together in time for be surrounded. Celes grabbed Roman's hand and concentrated and suddenly the radius around them exploded. Celes opened her mouth in shock and turned to Roman but didn't get time to ask any questions because they were being herded towards a door where they all fell through into a cave like room.

Roman moaned, "You know there are days when I really hate magical doors and traps." She got up and dusted herself off. Right then a dark like cloud whizzed by her. She automatically got on guard and looked around. Celes was gone. As another Cloud came at her she dodged it and hit it with a stunning spell. A death eater dropped to the ground. Her heart sped up in panic as she looked for Celes.

She was being held captive by a Death Eater along with the rest of the DA. Roman pressed her back to Harry as she kept her eyes on the Death Eater that held Celes.

"Give me the prophecy, Potter." Lucius growled at Harry.

"How about I tell you this." Roman told him as she eyed all the DA kids being held by Death Eaters. Something deep inside her started to grow with anger as she kept seeing Celes held captive. "If you don't let us go, Harry will smash the shit out of that little ball and something bad will happen to your Death Eaters."

"Stupid girl, you and Harry cannot do anything. We have you surrounded." Malfoy growled at her.

Roman knew her eyes were growing black because she started to grow cold. Matter-of-fact the whole room started to grow cold. With every breath everyone took a fog of steam came out. "Last change, Malfoy. Let everyone go."

"Potter give me the orbe!" Malfoy yelled. "Or your friends will start dying one by one."

"DON'D GIB ID DO DEM!" roared Neville, who seemed beside himself, kicking and writhing as Bellatrix drew nearer to him and his captor, her wand raised. "DON'D GIB ID DO DEM, HARRY!"

Bellatrix raised her wand. 'Crucio!'

Neville screamed, his legs drawn up to his chest so that the Death Eater holding him was momentarily holding him off the ground. The Death Eater dropped him and he fell to the floor, twitching and screaming in agony.

"That was just a taster!" said Bellatrix, raising her wand so that Neville's screams stopped and he lay sobbing at her feet. She turned and gazed up at Harry. "Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friend die the hard way!"

"Don't do it, Harry," Roman hissed.

"But Neville…"

"We all knew the dangers coming here. We are here to help. It's part of war. Everyone has to taste pain at one point or another. So don't give it to up."

"Still stubborn, Potter? How about we do her?" Bellatrix raised a wand to Celes.

"Wait!" Malfoy told her. "Potter, give me the orbe and no one will get hurt." he casted a worry glance at Celes.

"Don't do it." Roman said again.

"Shut up!" Malfoy shouted at her.

"Make me, Malfoy. I bet you are just as wimpy as your son." she hissed at him.

"Crucio!" Bellatrix yelled.

Celes screamed as she sank to the floor.

Roman quickly turned around knocked the orbe out of Harry's hand. She used his Shoulders for leverage and kicked Malfoy in the face.

High above them, two more doors burst open and five more people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks and Kingsley.

Malfoy quickly stood up, and raised his wand, but Sirius had already grabbed his arm and socked him in the jaw.

"Get away from my godson." he growled.

As the Death Eaters were completely distracted Roman ran towards the Death Eater standing over Celes. She grabbed the back of his neck and started to inhale. A white glowing perl appeared and then it was gone. the Death Eater collapse to the ground dead.

Roman kneeled down to Celes and picked her up, "Cel bear, please tell me you are alright. If you don't I swear I'm killing every last person in her." she hissed as she shook her.

Celes groaned and nodded, "Yes, I'm good. I swear." She told her.

Roman hugged her hard. "Thank God."

"Ro, we have to help!"

"Be careful." Roman warned. "I have a feeling if you go, I go. And I don't mean that as terms of endearment. I really mean I'm going to loose myself to my demon."

Celes nodded, "Okay." That made Celes snap out of her stupor and she nodded standing up. "Right you need me to control the demon I get it. Right. Hand." she said reaching out.

Roman nodded grabbing her hand and the two ran into the fray. The fighting was intense and scary and Celes deflected spell after spell. She got hit in the shoulder with a random spell and Roman whipped around and yelled something and the Death Eater dropped to the floor. Celes didn't think but the room filled with laughter and suddenly there was a green flash and Celes and Roman turned in time to see Sirius falling through the veil. Harry cried out and Lupin seized him around the waist and Celes felt tears prickle her eyes as she watched Harry and then he took off after Bellatrix and the rest of the Death Eaters left Celes let out a little gasp and looked around.

"Is that it?" came Blaise's voice, it was slurred. "Oh good." he said and fell down he was bleeding.

"Blaise." Celes said letting go of Roman's hand and going to him. She started healing the gash in his shoulder and she looked around while she did that. She saw that most of the people in the room needed first aid of some kind and she looked at Roman.

"Hey get them all healing the minor stuff I'll do the major stuff." she said. And Roman started directing people.

Celes got up about 10 minutes later and she started helping people walk out of the room. When they entered the main room of the Ministry it was covered in powdered glass and Harry was standing stunned with Dumbledore.

"What happened?" Blaise asked coming up and grabbing her hand.

"I... don't know." Celes said pulling her hand away and stepping forward to try to get to Harry but she was stopped by Lupin.

"Not now." he said and she turned to him with an angry look.

"Why? He... needs…" she was going to say me but the words died in her throat.

She couldn't be there for him right now, because she wasn't with him. She wasn't with anyone right now. Celes turned away and wiped her eyes and looked at Roman with a shrug.

Roman gave her a nod as she rubbed her own arms. Her flesh was still cold. She had tried to help with the healing but the kids were complaining that her skin was too cold that it burned. So she instructed others to do what they need. Roman looked over to harry as a shadow figure rises out of him and people from the Ministry started to appear.

The Fudge appeared and paused as he saw Voldemort and disappeared. "He's back." he said.

"No shit, Sherlock." Roman hissed.

It was now time for them to go home. Thier fifth year had ended with the news that Voldemort was really back and the Ministry had acknowledged that he was back. Roman had grumbled about how slow they were and how they all needed to be flogged. Dalton just shook his head. He was kind of upset with her for going to fight. He had berated her when they all returned. She only shrugged it off. She thanked him for caring but ended up telling him that he wasn't her father and he couldn't tell her what to do.

At the Hogsmeade station Roman sat in a compartment alone. She was still having trouble keeping her body temperature to a normal level. Every time she had thought about what Bellatrix had done she would get angry all over again. She wanted her to pay, and she knew one day she would make her pay.

The compartment door opened and Celes gave her a little smile, "Mind if I sit with you? All the other ones are full."

Roman nodded and thought about the first day they met. Celes had found her alone in a compartment too. However, she had said that Draco was going to make an ass of himself. Which he did.

"I see you are wearing the ring you got for your birthday." Celes told her.

Roman looked at the white gold ring. She had meant to take it off but for some odd reason it was the only thing that was keeping her body temperature at a normal level.

"Uh, yeah… Thank you, it really is pretty." She fiddled with it and looked out the window as the train started to move.

"So, uh, did you hear from Fred and George, yet?"

"Yeah, they said business was going great. They told me they had a surprise for me at the station."

"Oh, that's good. I'm glad." Celes fiddled around a little nervously.

Roman sighed, "Look, Cel, I don't want this to be awkward, okay. I know we had our issues and we are working on it. I…" she paused as she looked over to Celes. "I still love you. Truly, I do… but if you ever hurt yourself I swear I will flog you." She hissed.

Celes frowned at her, "Excuse me?"

"If you starve yourself because I'm upset with you, I will take you out and flog you. Then I will hold you, and apologize and… and…"

Celes fell out laughing. "I was worried about you too." she told her.

Roman quickly turned away to hide the tears gathering in her eyes. "You don't have to say it like that." she whispered.

For the rest of the ride home they kept a light conversation. Then it was time for them to deboard. Alan greeted them with hugs and Lark. As Roman was gathering her things Lee walked up to her.

"Ro," he whispered.

Roman became still. She didn't even look at him.

"This was my last year and… I wanted to say that I was sorry. I know I messed everything up and I was… I'm hoping you will forgive me one day."

She only stood there fighting a war inside of her. One part of her wanted to slap him and push him away. Another part of him wanted to wrap her arms around him and kiss him.

"I… know this is late but I got you something for your birthday." he held out the gift. When she didn't reach out to get it, he placed it on her trunk. "I hope to see you around." he whispered. Taking a chance he stepped forward and placed a kiss on her head.

Tears ran down her eyes as she stood there. When She saw his shoes walk away she looked up at his back. It was probably be the last time she would see him and she only stood there. Her heart hurt with that idea.

"Ro!" Alan called.

Roman quickly wiped her eyes and placed the gift inside her trunk. She had found that no matter how angry she was with her friends she always kept their gifts. "Damn stubbornness." she growled to herself. She looked up again to look for Lee but he was nowhere in sight. She walked back to her father and Celes.

"I have some news and I know you are going to be upset. So hear me out." Alan told her.

Roman frowned at him, "What?"

"You and Celes are going to do training this summer."

Her frown got deeper, "No, this summer I'm going alone."

"No, you and her are going to work on your new found powers."

She looked over to Celes and Celes looked away. "You knew about this didn't you?" She hissed.

"Kind of." Celes answered.

"Dad, I need this time away. I can't…"

"You two need to stick together. I know you are hurt, both of you. However, this power you have only works when both of you are on the same wavelength. That means emotionally and spiritually…"

"No, I am not doing this." Roman growled.

"You will be attached at the hip, so to speak. You will eat together, shop together, sleep together…"

"Hey!" Celes piped up. "That isn't what you said."

"You will even bath together…"

"NO!" both of them yelled together.

"One cannot be out of the room without the other." Alan continued as if he didn't hear any of their protests. "And to make it even more interesting, you both will be taking care of Lark."

Roman gasped. It was too much. He was opening too much. She wanted this time to be alone and away from her friends so she could heal and exercise herself into the ground. Now she was suppose to be with the one person she had saw a future with and was to be forced to live that future. Tears gather in her eyes.

"Please, I beg you, don't do this… I understand that you want us to work together, but please don't… don't do this."

Alan's eyes softened, "Look girls," He looked at Celes too, "Both of you are very, very, very powerful. I will tell you this, you may be even powerful enough to defeat Voldemort, however without proper training both of you could lose your lives. I know this will be hard and that this may be opening old wounds that have yet to heal. But this is part of the training. You two have to learn each other's boundaries…"

"Well that is easy right now, don't make us stick so close to each other." Roman told him.

"No, that is necessary. You have to learn self control, boundaries, openness, and each other's minds." he turned to Celes. "I got special permission for you to use magic while you are in this training. My tribe already granted Roman permission when she first started." He pulled out a little blue notebook. "This is your passport."

"Where are we going?" Celes asked.

"You are going to My and Roman's home. The two of you will be living alone and fending for yourselves. There is plenty of money to do as you please. A member of the counsel with check in with you girls once a week… basically to see if you are still alive." He smiled at them.

"That's not funny." they said in unision.

"Look, you two are already acting alike." They both glared at him, "Yep, you two are almost there." He kissed both of them on the forehead. "I will be there a week before school starts to bring you back here to get the things you need. Your flight will leave early tomorrow morning." he looked at Roman, "I am depending on you to take care of her. It will be a new place for her, so play nice. Oh, and one small detail. If the two of you try to stay separated from each other, there will be consequences… bad consequences. So I advise you stick close to each other." He kissed Lark. "Now, the shulfer will drive you to a hotel and pick you up tomorrow morning at 8. He will have all the information you need." With that said he walked away.


End file.
